Def Leppard Tour History - Phil Collen Radio Screamer Interview

News - Phil Collen Radio Screamer Interview

Thursday, 27th January 2011 |

Phil Collen was interviewed by Radio Screamer last night and gave an update on the live album and upcoming tour. This update comes two weeks after the last update from interviews at NAMM. Phil indicated the tour is still being worked out with plans changing or being updated. He said the tour would likely start in the first week of June. They are now considering European (and perhaps UK) festival offers. He mentioned Heart as possible touring partners but gave no confirmation. Heart themselves have said they will announce 'summer tour plans' in the next few weeks via their mailing list.

Phil also gave some updates on the three new studio songs. One has been written by Joe Elliott, one by Rick Savage and the other was written by Phil himself and his writing partner in California, C.J. Vanston.

Radio Screamer - Phil Collen Interview Quotes

"We're actually releasing a live album. Everyone's always been asking 'when's the live album coming?!', which we've never put out. It's gonna be a live album, a live DVD with three new songs. It was gonna be more than three new songs, we've actually written a few more but to be quite honest we're only gonna finish three of them off. So it'll be three studio songs and tons of live stuff and a live DVD."

"And then we'll be touring it this summer. As these things go I think we're gonna try and get it out - it's probably gonna be mid-May."

"And the tour, wherever it kicks off - cause actually we've just got an offer for some festivals in Europe as well so. That may happen but regardless of that it'll be the first week of June. Yeah even if we do the European thing we'll still come to the States probably ten days after. So it'll be pretty close - first week of June I'd say."

Touring partner?

"I've heard like Heart and stuff like that but you know there's no one hundred percent confirmation on that stuff yet so yeah I don't know. Don't quote me on that."

New songs?

"They're a bit varied actually cause one's a Joe Elliott song, one's a Rick Savage song and one's a song me and my writing partner who I work with C.J. Vanston. We've been writing together for like five or six years. We've got a thing and they sound very Def Leppard. The Joe one is kind of anthemic and some of it you know you'll recognise it - it's kind of a bit like you know Hysteria-esque with a bit more punch to it and stuff. Yeah they're really cool."

Album title?

"We did have and we changed it cause we were gonna call it Mirror Ball which was representative you know of like a live theatre, Sparkle Lounge thing which was our last studio album. But it's not gonna be that. Again sorry I can't be more definite with these things but it's a live album so it's live plus some other stuff so I don't really know how we're gonna word that. We're still trying to figure out a title."

Recording process?

"Well the new songs we done - we basically got the demo together and got a really good demo and got the feel of the thing and then just added stuff to it. I mean we've always done that like in Def Leppard we always do the drums last. Hysteria, Pyromania they had drums last on them records. Same with Slang which was more of a live studio album. We actually played together and stuff but we still used the drum takes later. So it's no different to that really. It's just that all my stuff I've actually been doing from home and actually just sending files over. It's great and some of it I do on my laptop as well which is trippy. I really wish that'd been years ago. Great guitar tones and everything and they're all software based and actually sound better than the amplifiers. You know you can't tell. It's great it just sounds like Def Leppard that's the funny thing. You go through all this analogue stuff then it's digital and then it's computer software based but the bottom line is you know the band has a sound, it has a sound and it should sound the same. So yeah and it does."

The rest of the interview dealt with Leppard history from 1983 up to 1992, the Sparkle Lounge album. Girl and Man Raze (new album ready to be recorded). Plus Moodah Music his record label and health and fitness.