Friday, 26th January 2018
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JOE ELLIOTT/RICK SAVAGE Revisit SHEFFIELD Spoon Factory On THE ONE SHOW

Def Leppard 2018. Screenshot

Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Rick Savage appeared on the BBC's The One Show earlier tonight and video/photos are available.

Joe and Sav appeared in a Story Of The Song feature being interviewed by Carrie Grant.

They visited the Spoon Factory building at Portland Works and talked about their early days, Rick's accident and the success of the 'Hysteria' album and 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'.

PSSOM was also performed acoustically in the Spoon Factory with both of them playing guitar. A short version played near the end with lots of talking over the top.

As mentioned the five minute clip filming took place in Sheffield on 20th December.

The filming took place only two days before the show was broadcast for the last time in 2017.

Joe and Sav's interview will therefore not be shown until at least that date. This will also be the 27th anniversary of Steve Clark's death in 1991.

Carrie Grant again posted about the show on Twitter.

Watch the full show via the bbc.co.uk/iplayer link. Their part starts at 19:17 mins in.

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

The One Show - Joe Elliott/Rick Savage Interview Transcript

Carrie Grant - "40 years ago this former cutlery factory in Sheffield hosted the very first performance of a group who went on to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world, Def Leppard. Pour Some Sugar On Me was the hit that helped them secure their place in history. they've now sol more than 100 million records worldwide. But today we've brought Joe the singer and Sav the bassist back to their factory rehearsal space where it all began."

Sav - "We spent most of our lives in here, when we weren't doing our day jobs. Playing, hanging out."

Joe - "The first gig we ever played was in this room, really. ."

Sav - "Yeah."

Joe - "Remember we had an invited audience."

Sav - "We used to call them rent a crowd. They were all our mates. ."

Joe - "We only had four or five songs, but we did it like a gig you know. It was all foot on the monitor and shaking your head. But it was brilliant fun."

Sav - "At the time you just think this is great you know. We're gonna be huge!."

Joe - "We could either work in a place like this making cutlery. Or we could work in a place like this making music. it was kind of a no brainer."

Over the next few years the band made three albums and gained a huge American audience. But back home in the UK they remained relatively unknown. Was it odd for you guys being big in America and yet not really picking up so well here?.

Joe - "The word apparently would have been big in our family. It's like yeah, apparently they're quite big in America. But back in those days if you were on telly. Ooh they must be famous but we weren't on the radio or the telly in England. So it was just hearsay. ."

Rather than sitting back on their Stateside success, the band resolved to try and take their music to a wider audience.

Sav - "We didn't wanna alienate ourselves from the heavy metal crowd that had always been with us from day one. It was just trying to bridge that gap and making an album that was kind of universal."

But it meant a very slow start in the studio as the band began experimenting. Then progress was halted further when drummer Rick was involved in a terrible accident severing one arm.

Sav - "Initially your biggest concern is whether he's gonna live. You didn't even really think about what the band are gonna do. That kinda comes later. ."

Joe - "How do you deal with somebody telling you that your drummer has lost fifty percent of the most important part of what he does for a living is gone."

But Rick was determined to find a way around his injury. He discharged himself from hospital early and worked tirelessly developing a new electronic drum kit.

Joe - "And he started playing and we were like, wow!."

Sav - "It kinda gave us a bit more of an identity on how we sound."

The album finally came together and was almost finished when their producer came across Joe strumming his acoustic guitar.

Joe - "And he goes what is that?. So I played it to him and he said something long the lines of, he goes, That's the best hook I've heard in like five, ten years or whatever. And he says we should do this. You know lyrically with PSSOM there was obviously a nod towards the fact that sugar is always been a great metaphor for the mating ritual if you like. We all knew it wasn't Bob Dylan, but it's like. God it's just phonetically it's just bang on. And I always hark back to Little Richard. He's got this one song and it goes ""Tutti Frutti, aw rutti, Wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bom-bom". Right Oh. You know what I mean. What does that mean?. But who cares?!."

Sav (at the same time) "But who cares?!."

With the addition of PSSOM the album Hysteria was finally released in August 1987. It's gone on to sell more than 25 million copies to date. And the success is largely due to that track. And today for the first time in 40 years, especially for The One Show, the guys are back in the old cutlery factory playing their signature song.

Sav - "It's such an audience participation type song. It's very simple and less melodic but just had an impact. It's just a great vibe to do."

Joe - "The crowd take over so much that they're actually louder than we are. When there's 20,000 of them doing it and it's like whoah that's loud!."

Photo Gallery

Screenshots by dltourhistory.



The 'Hysteria 30th Anniversary Edition' was released around the world on 4th August.

Hysteria 2017.


Buy 'Hysteria 30th Anniversary Edition' Online

  • Amazon - (5CD/2DVD Super Deluxe Edition)
  • Amazon - (2CD Deluxe Edition)
  • Amazon - (1CD Edition)
  • Amazon - (2LP Vinyl-Black)

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