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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Rick Savage On Def Leppard's Adrenalize Tour/Future (Rare 1993 Video)

Wednesday, 19th October 2016





Def Leppard 1993.
Screenshot by dltourhistory

Def Leppard did a promo tour of Europe in January 1993 and a rare UK video interview with Rick Savage is available.

The band played their first acoustic show in Spain in late January 1993 on a break from the North American Adrenalize tour.

They then returned to England to promote the 'Heaven Is' single and appeared on various TV and radio shows.

This interview was recorded for the ITV show Raw Power which was linked to the rock magazine RAW!. It was broadcast late night on Friday/early Saturday morning and featured a mix of videos and interviews.

Sav's interview was taped on the weekend of 23rd/24th January 1993 when Joe and Sav also appeared on various shows as part of the MTV Sunday special. Sav is shown wearing the same clothes.

In the 13 minute video posted by Bille, the 'Heaven Is' video is shown at the start followed by Sav talking from 3:30mins until 11:40mins in when it ends with the 'Have You Ever...' video. 'Let's Get Rocked' and 'MLLAM' video clips are also shown in the middle.

Sav talks about the current Adrenalize world tour and its In The Round staging, the 1992 UK tour, the music industry changing/Grunge, the future musical direction of the band, plans for what would be the Don Valley stadium show (not announced until April 1993).

Sav refers to it as the Rother Valley Stadium even though Don Valley Stadium was only known by one name and Rother Valley is about 5 miles away to the South East of Sheffield with no stadium in it. Rotherham United F.C. did once use Don Valley as their home stadium which could account for the mix up.

The presenter Phil Alexander now works as a DJ for Planet Rock. Sav mentions plans to make a more "earthy" album next time and this was just one month after they came up with the idea for making the Retro-Active album during the 1993 tour.

Rick Savage - January 1993 Interview Quotes

In The Round Stage/1992 UK Tour

"Well basically all it was, it was a continuation of the Hysteria thing. When we went out and we pioneered this idea of playing in the middle of the audience. You know, which in actually fact the early part of 1992 we managed for the first time to actually bring it to England. And we played Earls Court twice, and we played Sheffield Arena twice, Glasgow, Birmingham. Three nights at the NEC. And it was great to actually show the English fans what the American fans have been seeing for the past five or six years."

"And it's basically just the stage bang smack in the middle of the arena. So you're completely surrounded by the audience. So it's like there's nowhere to hide you know. You can't lean up against one of your amps and scratch your bum or anything like that 'cause there's nowhere to hide in the round."

"And that's basically all we've been doing since we did the English tour. We took it to Australia for a few shows because we were basically just filling in time and then we went to America and we spent. Got to American about August and on and off we've been there right up until the end of the year and we're due to go back there for the first couple of months of '93."

Music Industry Changing/Grunge

"There has yeah and I actually think it's been a good thing. It's very strange that the likes of Pearl Jam. Who, I really love that album I've gotta say. I mean I like the freshness and the direction of the majority of the Seattle type bands. But the strange thing is about it is it's only really got momentum in '92 but the Pearl Jam album was out the first 8 or 9 months of 1991 and it was doing OK. And then all of a sudden something happened in '92. I think it's probably the release of our album that everybody said, 'OH hang on, we can't have everything all Def Leppard. Let's try and get something else going.'"

"And I think it's very healthy for that end of the music you know. For the more hard rock type music to have something that is not just either sounding like Def Leppard or sound like Bon Jovi or Winger. The late 80s bands 'cause it was all getting a little bit stale I thought. It was good in its own right but along has come this Seattle thing and it given a competition and any sort of competition within hard rock music I think is very, very healthy 'cause it kicks people up the backside and it makes sure that there's no complacency that sets in. Which you very easy to do when you're just going along with the same type of formulaic music."

"There's no way that we could change our style overnight just because there's a new fad in town you know what I mean. We couldn't do that. I mean if we wanted to write songs like Pearl Jam or maybe like Nirvana even. It would be any good for us because they would be able to do it better than we can because you do what comes naturally first and foremost. And they would do that type of music or that type of hard rock better than we would you know. And that's - you always have to stick to what you're good at and obviously you've gotta be aware of what's happening around you and try and incorporate it into how you think it should be."

The Next Album?

"We haven't really given it serious thought but there is a consciousness within the band that maybe we're getting a little tired of the - I wouldn't say, I would hate to call it formula because it sounds very premeditated and it's never been premeditated but it always - we do have a sound. That we actually invented almost. Ten, twelve years ago and you kind of do stick to certain guidelines. And I think there's a feeling within the band maybe that maybe it's time to maybe - it's not in a way of progression. Just a way of like deviating a little bit. Maybe the next album would possibly be a little bit more earthy. A little bit more street orientated as opposed to the more radio orientated. Not that there's - there's nothing wrong with that. We've always defended that type of record but like I said there's always room for a slight bit of change. As long as it's still applies to - and you still think it's valid within the realms of Def Leppard."

1993 Stadium Show

"We're trying to put together some open air thing. We thought about Wembley Stadium. We thought about Bramall Lane, Sheffield. The football ground and we though about Hillsborough the football ground in Sheffield. And there's no way that I'll play at Bramall Lane because I'm a Sheffield Wednesday fan. And there's no way Joe will play at Hillsborough because he's a Sheffield United fan. Wembley may have been a little bit too ambitious at this point of planning. So there's another. So there's a stadium outside Sheffield called the Rother Valley Stadium which holds about 35,000 people and we thought that was a good compromise. So there's a possibility that that could come on maybe in the late summer."

"Which I mean we really want to do but obviously there's a lot of work between now and then."

Watch the footage on this YouTube Playlist along with other videos from the same era posted back in early 2015.

Def Leppard 1993 Adrenalize Fan Videos.

Fan photos and reviews from any past tour can be submitted - Here

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