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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Rocket UK Single Released 25 Years Ago Today

Thursday, 30th January 2014





Rocket 1989.

Def Leppard released their classic single Rocket 25 years ago in the UK on this day in 1989.

The sixth and final UK single to be taken from the 'Hysteria' album. The band performed the song on UK TV show 'Top Of The Pops'.

It was included on the fourth studio album 'Hysteria' and reached Number 15 on the UK Top 40 single chart.

The single entered the chart at 31 before rising to 20 and then its peak of 15 with a third week in the Top 20 at 19. In all it spent 7 weeks on the chart, the fifth Top 20 hit from the album in the UK.

Phil Collen - Vault Inner Sleeve Quote

"Probably our most adventurous song from 'Hysteria'. A cool video and my favourite live song."

Phil Collen - 27th July 2011 Interview Quote

"My favorite song to play is "Rocket." I think that kind of represents Def Leppard in one sentence, you know? Big guitars, big drums, a tribal song, actually. It's what the song is about, our heroes and the whole thing."

Phil Collen - 5th July 2012 Interview Quotes

"Even in demo form, Joe said, 'I've got an idea to use the rhythm from this African Burundi tribe.' There was a song in the '70s called Burundi Black, and I remembered it, and so the idea was to use that feel and turn it into a real rock anthem. It was a little weird and quirky, but it really came together.

"I feel that Rocket is the absolute pinnacle of Def Leppard. It sums us up in a nutshell: massive drums, massive guitars, big choruses, and lyrically, it's what the Yeah! album was. So you've got all of our influences and elements right there.

"I used the Strat on all the jangle parts and the rhythms. We had a lot of fun making that Star Wars bit in the middle - you know, 'Countdown commencing' and all that. It was an absolute blast. It's Star Wars for the ears. And again, what was great was to not be restricted by your genre. We knew what we were doing was different and it sounded great.

"We had started taking weekends off, and I remember Nigel Green, the engineer, sitting in the studio with an AMS delay machine, and he was delaying all the stuff by hand. 'Ahh-ahh-ahhh…' Now you can do that so easily, but he had to do it the hard way - physically."






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