Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT Says DEF LEPPARD's UK Hysteria Tour Is An Event

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Tuesday, 13th February 2018

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JOE ELLIOTT Says DEF LEPPARD's UK Hysteria Tour Is An Event

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Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has filmed another video interview to promote the UK Hysteria tour.

Joe spoke to the Echo Arena in Liverpool ahead of the Hysteria & More UK tour.

Like the other video posted by Ticketmaster UK it was shot recently in London.

Joe talked about the catalogue streaming launch, Hysteria album release, Monsters Of Rock 1986, Rick's introduction, finishing off Hysteria, VIVA! Hysteria residency and the 2018 UK Hysteria tour.

He again previewed the UK Hysteria tour and reflected on Rick Allen's 1986 comeback show at Donington.

Watch the full 4 minute video interview below.

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Echo Arena Liverpool - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Catalogue Streaming Launch

"We wanted it to make a splash which is why we held back until this year. We'd been negotiating to get the digital thing all under the one umbrella for months and months and months. And then we had to master everything for streaming. Technically it's just slightly different than say for vinyl or CD. And that's the entire catalogue so you've gotta go through every single song and check. So we've been doing it for months to get it ready."

"In the Rock Chart on day two we had nine albums in the Top 20 and we've still got four in the Top 10 of the regular chart right now. And I believe Hysteria's like hovering around Number Five or something. It's like it's 30 years old, it doesn't make any sense, but I'll take it any day. It's been amazing."

Hysteria Album Release

"You know we were a relatively young band at the time, mid 20s or whatever, and it was our fourth album and we'd yet to break the UK. And if you're gonna break sooner or later an album is gonna do it. Pyromania didn't, but it did in America and then Hysteria did. We put a lot of work into it. There just happened to be a lot of great songs on it. It was one of the first albums made for digital. You know the digital kind of generation where it was 63 minutes. You know we didn't try and squeeze it to 40 minutes to fit nicely on vinyl. We made it as a CD."

Monsters Of Rock 1986

"Well the first time we played Donington Park it was called the Monsters Of Rock. And it was 1986 and we were going through cabin fever. We were still making Hysteria, it was yet to come out by literally a year by the time we played there. But we're still a year shoy of releasing the album and it was two years after Rick's accident. So there was knowledge now on this band in the UK that hadn't really sold any records in England for a while."

"First album went Top 20, the second album went Top 30. The third album which sold six million nopies in America, didn't sell in England at all when it was released. But by the time we got to Donington and it had sold the six million like three years previously in the States, it had sold maybe 200,000 in the UK. Which his a lot of records. And so by the time we got on stage at Donnington. There was a crowd that were a) more familiar with our music than we thought and b) curious as to how this kid's gonna play the drums with one arm. And we were only third on the bill. It was a great spot for us. We followed Motorhead and we went on before Ozzy and the Scorpions. ."

Rick's Introduction/Finishing Hysteria

"We made a point of like saying OK, we're not gonna milk this. He's in the band but he's not a cricus freak. So I'm not gonna say anything. We was gonna play our one hour set and get off. But it just became blatantly obvious as we were performing that we had to say something. And I remember turning around to Phil and going I'm gonna introduce him and he went yeah, you have to. And I introduced him and I swear to god and I've said this many times. It was like standing in front of a massive hairdryer. You could actually feel the crowd nevermind hear them. It was just mad."

"You know when I introduced him there was so much kind of love and respect for what he'd achieved by then that it made us feel like a million dollars. You know it made us...we went back to the studio so energised after those 'cause we did Monsters Of Rock three other European you know Monsters Of Rock shows. I have great memories of Donington. It's a spiritual rebirthing place for Rick Allen."

VIVA! Hysteria Residency In Las Vegas

"We were asked five years ago by some promoters in the States to do a residency in Vegas. And at the time it resonated with us as something different you know. We were going through a let's do something different phase in our career. We'd just done a session with Taylor Swift. Which was very unusual for a band like us. And they said you know would you consider doing an entire record for a month?. You know four shows a week sort of thing in Vegas. Maybe three shows a week in Vegas."

2018 UK Hysteria & More Tour

"We did it and it was a resounding success. We did a DVD. And then the requests started coming on from the rest of the world. You've gotta come and do it somewhere else. And we promised the UK in fairness, we promised the UK five years ago that eventually we would. There was a demand for us to tour the UK, but we don't have a new record out. So we don't just wanna keep going out and doing the greatest hits for the sake of it. So it's like instead of just doing that, and doing essentially the same tour we did with Whitesnake two years ago. Let's turn it into an event. So we decided now is the right time to play Hysteria in the UK."