Third studio album Def Leppard in the USA it boasts Diamond Record status for selling over 10 million copies (since 2004), and over 25 million copies have been sold worldwide. For most of the year after its premiere in the US, an average of approximately 100,000 copies were sold per week. Due to their gigantic success in the United States, the band is in the elite group of only five rock groups that have released two albums that went diamond overseas (the second album is “Hysteria” from 1987).
The beginnings of the team from Sheffield (the turn of the 1970s and 1980s) are considered to be New Wave of British Heavy Metaltogether with, among others, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Diamond Head. However, the musicians quickly turned to the American market, which did not entirely please the loyal fans from Great Britain (a memorable incident during Reading Festival 1980when the band was pelted with beer cans and bottles filled with urine).
Def Leppard, performing overseas, caught the producer’s attention Robert “Mutt” Langewho has already had great successes with “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black” by AC/DC. It was Lange, quickly dubbed the “sixth member of Def Leppard”, who produced the group’s second album – “High ‘n’ Dry” (1981). Single “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” was one of the first metal videos broadcast by MTV. Popularity also began to grow thanks to performances alongside, among others, Ozzy Osbourne.
The British decided to strike while the iron was hot, but during the recording of the next album “Pyromania”, the guitarist was fired from the band with a bang. Pete Willis. It turned out that the co-founder of the band had too many problems with alcohol. In July 1982, the group was accepted Phil Collen, who finished the recording, decorating the material mainly with solos. Work on “Pyromania” was so advanced that Willis ultimately co-wrote four songs that appeared on the album.
Already the first single “Photograph” showed that Def Leppard will seriously mess up the charts. The clip entered high rotation on MTV, and the song reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. More singles also entered the Top 40 – “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin'”placing the band at the forefront of the then emerging poodle metal, as the mixture of melodic hard rock and glam metal was not very favorably described.
Most of the material for the “Pyromania” album was signed by the singer Joe Elliottguitarist Steve Clarkbassist Rick Savage and producer Robert “Mutt” Lange.
On the Billboard charts, “Pyromania” only stopped its progress to the top “Thriller” by Michael Jackson – so far an absolute bestseller of all time.
However, the British also paid for their successes with tragedies – on New Year’s Eve 1984, the drummer Rick Allen He was seriously injured in a car accident when the vehicle he was driving went off the road. As a result of the injuries, the musician lost his left arm, but almost two years after the accident he returned to the stage, becoming one of the few one-armed drummers.
On January 8, 1991, Steve Clark, struggling with alcoholism, died of an overdose of codeine at the age of only 30. The guitarist’s blood contained traces of alcohol (a level three times the legal limit for driving a car in the UK), drugs and prescription drugs (Valium). “He slowly committed suicide,” the musician’s parents commented years later.
The album “Pyromania” and its four-year-later diamond successor “Hysteria” were included in such charts as: the best albums of the 80s or the greatest metal albums of all time. In total, Def Leppard boasts an impressive number of over 100 million albums sold worldwide.
The upcoming deluxe edition was produced by vocalist Joe Elliott and Ronan McHughand is responsible for mastering Andy Pearce.
“Rediscovering dusty old cassettes that Ronan has exquisitely restored, and finding the long-lost, unfinished ‘track 11’ (““No You Can’t Do That”) was a journey that only a few of us were lucky enough to go on… what a journey!” he enthuses Joe Elliott.
Bass Rick Savage adds: “From the very beginning we had a specific idea of what we wanted to sound like. A huge wall of guitars and drums supporting powerful vocals and melodies. This vision came to fruition with ‘Pyromania’. Even now it has that special quality that made it so groundbreaking album. It’s a testament to how these songs remain fan favorites and true cornerstones of every Leppard show. 40 years?? It doesn’t even feel like 40 days have passed.”
The deluxe version will consist of four discs – additionally unpublished demos discovered by Joe Elliott and concert recordings from the Los Angeles Forum and Westfalen Halle in Dortmund (Germany) from 1983. The Blu-ray will also include, among others: promotional music videos, and the booklet will include new interviews with musicians conducted by Paul Elliott and rare and unpublished photos by Ross Halfin.