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Nottingham, England - Media Reviews

Def Leppard + Motley Crue @ Capital FM Arena, Notts - 8th December 2011 By Ali Lewsley

There was a time that if Motley Crue and Def Leppard had shared the same bill the hair spray used by their collective fan base would have added a couple of feet to the hole in the ozone layer. The audience at the Capital FM Arena tonight is a lot older and significantly less hirsute than in either bands heyday.

I missed Steel Panther but the conversations either side of me in the loo during the interval made them sound pretty good.

Motley Crue look surprisingly well given the drink, drugs and death stories that have regularly circulated about them since the release of Too Fast for Love 30 years ago. Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx have been the band's mainstay with a revolving door of singers and drummers since 1981. Tonight's show is the classic line up of Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mars and Sixx. Crue's stage set is dominated by a large circular lighting rig that looks like something out of Stargate SG1. It lets out (hopefully) controlled bursts of flame, and during 'Shout at the Devil' carefully choreographed blasts of fireworks. On the down side, Mick Mars struggled with a ropey guitar sound, especially on the ballad 'Home Sweet Home', leaving only Tommy Lee's charisma to hold things together during a couple of breaks in the set.

The highlight of the show is Tommy Lee's traditional drum solo. In the past he's been tilted forward, spun round and flown over the crowd. This one takes it one further, the lighting rig doubles as a drum riser roller coaster, and one lucky member from the audience gets to ride along. 'Merlin' looks genuinely nervous when Tommy Lee tells him to "Grab your fucking nuts and hold on bitch!" Anyone who can hold a beat down upside down without throwing up is okay by me. 'Shout at the Devil', 'Girls Girls Girls' and 'Smoking in The Boys Room' and 'Doctor Feel Good' still zip along despite members of the band being close to drawing their pensions.

The show ends with the traditional buckets of blood over the front row of the audience. Although it's all stuff I heard and saw back in the 80's, it's still good sleazy fun, and surprisingly very enjoyable. Let's be thankful for small mercies, at nearly 50 Tommy Lee kept his pants on for the whole show.

Given Motley Crue's reputation as a live band it's a brave choice for Def Leppard to follow them. Def Leppard haven't scrimped on their stage set it's a big bright spangly affair with high tec video screens and light rigs everywhere, they definitely turn everything up to 11. You can still hear their new wave of British heavy metal roots, but tonight's set is all together polished. Any of the rough edges of their early metal sound have been polished off into a slick poppy mix of thudding drums, guitar solos and power ballads. Tracks from their biggest selling albums Pyromania, Hysteria and Adrenalize make up the heart of the set, including a short acoustic guitar section, although this quickly disintegrates into a drawn out version of 'Bringing on the Heartbreak'.

Def Leppard are at their best playing the catchy pop/metal of 'Pour Some Sugar On Me', but tonight's show sometimes gets bogged down in power ballads and slick video displays that don't really add to the song as on 'Gods Of War'. Joe Elliot often bemoans Def Leppard's outsider status, pointing out that the music press often ignores them in favour of artists who are seen as cool, but have sold far fewer albums. Tonight won't attract any new fans to their cause or up their chances of a guest slot on Jools Holland, but the audience leave very happy. Despite the high production values and ultra-modern set, Def Leppard just aren't as much fun as Motley Crue. I think the three blokes in bad hair metal blonde wigs would probably agree.

By Midlans Rocks 2011.


Live Review - DEF LEPPARD/MOTLEY CRUE Capital FM Arena 8/12/11 By Rob Lane

The possibility of a package tour like this happening ten years ago would have seemed like the most ridiculous hard rock wet dream in history. Yet here we are in 2011 awaiting one of the most anticipated arena shows of the year featuring two of the genre's most legendary bands along with STEEL PANTHER. And thank god for Steel Panther!

Reminding us equal parts of everything that was incredible and also ridiculous about perhaps the most ridiculed music genre ever, Steel Panther set out to destroy Nottingham with possibly the greatest musical in-joke ever. The secret to what makes Steel Panther work so well is their between song banter - Comedy gold that weaves in and out of surfer dude dumbness and crude teenage sex talk. Those in Nottingham who are familiar with the band fist punch along from the first power chords of 'Supersonic Sex Machine', whilst the rest of the crowd perhaps need the likes of 'Just Like Tiger Woods' or 'The Shocker' to realise they're either on board with the fun or just not gonna get it. When things go wrong it simply works so well in their favour, such as guitar hero Satchel's guitar strap breaking when he attempts to spin it round his head as the climx to his solo. A golden mistake you simply couldn't rehearse and it only warms you to the band even more! Steel Panther are a triumph on every level.

Over the past few years MOTLEY CRUE have grown in status to almost mythical proportions. Most of this band should have died one way or another by now whilst literally writing the book on rock and roll excess, so to see them all on stage together in your home town is something special in itself. Unfortunately though, it would be an uphill battle against technical difficulties that would test the band in front of thousands of people. Opening with 'Wildside', one of the greatest rock anthems ever for it's first three minutes which then just sticks around way too long and begins to plod, it's followed by several awkward silences between songs that signal something is not quite right. The band battle on through 'Shout At The Devil' and 'Saints of Los Angeles', each with their over the top, pre-recorded subtle-free backing vocals and stark contrast to the 'sing one line, miss one line' approach of frontman Vince Neil. The usually quiet Mick Marrs vents his frustration at a blown guitar rig but luckily we have Tommy Lee on board with his rollercoaster drum kit to balance up the chaos with one of the coolest sights in the past few years of rock and roll. Yes, it's over the top but that's what this band have always been about and the fact that Lee and the Crue bothered to bring this insane gimmick overseas with them deserves credit. I honestly can't decide whether the band won or lost in Nottingham? Everything that could have gone wrong, seemed to go wrong and it was an almost predictible Greatest Hits setlist which didn't serve up any real surprises. That said, Motley Crue did seem to hold onto that tiny little bit of danger that earn't them their original status, and for that reason alone it made for an entertaining rock show.

DEF LEPPARD are amazing. They're actually perhaps too good in fact. The sound quality and professionalism displayed over the following hour and a half was simply untouchable. Every note crystal clear, every song delivered and honed to perfection. But the downside is that perfection can unfortunately become a little dull when it comes to rock and roll. Aside from a few digs at the local football team and the mention of when they first played Nottingham in the late seventies, I'm not sure if this show was any different to the one a couple of nights before or any of the next dozen that would follow? After arriving with 'Undefeated' from their latest 'Mirrorball' album the Sheffield veterans set about unleashing pretty much every hit single from the past couple of decades. It's a set heavy with tracks from the 'Hysteria' album which suggests they're maybe dusting off the cobwebs and we can expect a 25th Anniversary Tour of the full album to grace our shores in 2012. This is the finest pop metal that has ever been put to disk and it's a privelage to hear it played live but I wanted some excitement and energy poured in as well. Yeah, I'm greedy like that!

I so wanted to mix all the best ingredients from each of the nights bands together - the fun of Steel Panther, the danger and unpredictability of Motley Crue and the sheer quality of Def Leppard to make one insanely amazing rock experience. Instead Nottingham got a tease of it throughout the night and maybe left wanting that little bit more? Hopefully we won't have to wait another twenty or so years for something like this to return.

By Nottingham Live 2011.


Def Leppard/Motley Crue - review By Dave Simpson

"I can't believe we're still alive," yells Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx. Since their eyewateringly debauched biography The Dirt, they have become the rock voyeur's favourite undead, having survived heroin, heart attacks, plastic surgery, a hip replacement, being dumped in a skip (Sixx) and even an incident involving a woman on all fours and cat litter.

Although the drugs are presumably on prescription nowadays, they still worship the gospel of excess all areas. Guitars are hurled in the air; buckets of blood over the crowd. No eardrum is safe from a pyrotechnic explosion. Even the microphone stand is attached to some sort of trapeze.

Songs such as Girls Girls Girls and OD anthem Kickstart My Heart are thoroughly unrepentant, but their shoutalong choruses get every hand in the air. Mars manages to blow up most of his amps (since he has 15, this is a mere trifle), while the theatrics get more brilliantly ludicrous. The piece de resistance is the sight of tattooed Tommy Lee drumming while revolving through a 360-degree vertical loop, a sight almost as eye-popping as his infamous sex tape.

Poor Def Leppard have to follow this every night: no wonder they sound dull. Although the Sheffield rockers still have mega-hits like Rocket and, er, Let's Get Rocked, their streamlined FM metal sounds stuck in the 80s and overly Americanised. Action is a lively cover of the song by Sweet, but When Love and Hate Collide is ghastly faux-boy-band metal, making you long for the savvy ridiculousness that makes the Crüe a hoot: if they had a song as ludicrously titled as Pour Some Sugar On Me, they'd no doubt illustrate it literally.

By The Guardian 2011.


Def Leppard / Motley Crue (with Steel Panther) @ Capital FM Arena 8/12/11 By Chris Morris

Def Leppard are no strangers to joint-headline tours, working alongside Heart in their US summer tour, and Whitesnake in their 2008 UK tour, however this tour held particular appeal, as they joined up with their contemporary, US outfit, Motley Crue. This show was not for the faint-hearted as fans expected, and received, a full night of what these UK/US rock 'n' roll bands had to throw at their fans.

Doors were open early at half five, and the support to the headliners Steel Panther got onstage at just half past six - much earlier than would usually be expected. Yet, in order to construct and then completely remove each band's stage set-up it was necessary to allow slightly longer than normal between acts, with both headliners intending to fulfil an hour and a half set. The Capital FM Arena (particular the standing section) was noticeably fuller than would normally be seen for a support act, but they well-complimented the headliners, and were worthy of drawing such a large crowd. Lewd, crude and couldn’t give a damn. Steel Panther blasted through their set, promoting their recently released 'Balls Out' album, with a view to selling tickets for their future headline tour. They received an extremely keen reception as they demonstrated their own take on sex-driven hard-rock, and their show should be a good indicator for the success of their own tour.

Motley Crue literally exploded into their set, as mini-explosions, alongside the dropping of the stage-covering veil, revealed their impressive stage set-up with a focus towards emphasising the wow factor. Crue, infamous for their extreme exploitation of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll adage, gave a performance matching up to their reputation. Out to prove that this was nothing less than a 'joint' headline tour, their use of pyrotechnics, firework explosions and lighting provided an extremely entertaining show.

Perhaps most shocking of all, was the moment where the crowd watched in awe, as Tommy Lee's drumkit traversed the circular light rig centre-stage, and he began drumming upside down during his solo-piece. Furthermore, not content to simply impress the crowd, Crue showed the extent to which they would go in order to put on a great show. They selected a member of the audience, attached another seat to Lee's and they both looped the rig during another drum solo. This ludicrous, yet spectacular demonstration of commitment to providing a fantastic show epitomised the spirit of the band, and their lust for truly hard-core rock 'n' roll.

After the transition time to remove Motley Crue's extravagant stage set-up, AC/DC's 'For Those About to Rock' rang out across the Capital FM Arena to signal Def Leppard's arrival. This was heralded as the 'Mirror Ball Tour' after their recent album release, yet only the single from the album 'Undefeated' featured in the set as the show opener. This was not too surprising as Def Leppard have a formidable back-catalogue, which they explored over the course of the night, including 'Gods of War' from the 'Hysteria' album which had not featured in their setlists for over two decades.

Def Leppard employed a much more intricate, carefully constructed light show as oppose to the emphatic effects used by Crue, yet there stage presence was no less marked. Fans were in good voice, particular during the acoustic set, and some of the better-known signature songs throughout the set. There was a clear cross-generational following at the Capital FM Arena, showing how these bastions of British rock can still work a crowd to just as great an effect as during their early years in the '80s.

The show eventually concluded around quarter past eleven, when fans who had been there since the opening of the Steel Panther set at half past six had enjoyed a full-night of transatlantic rock 'n' roll. Motley Crue and Def Leppard provided two very different and outstanding shows which proved that they were still very much alive and kicking, and keen to give their Nottingham fan base a night to remember.

By Impact Magazine 2011.

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