From BW&BK (via HardRadio.com, which is where I always read it)...
DEF LEPPARD's new album X is set to turn some heads with its sweet and chewy pop direction. Essentially, it is the band's mellowest album to date. A real shocker on the album is the truly dance-like 'Gravity', on which vocalist Joe Elliott offers the following. "I'll admit, I went in and did it over and over again, through Phil going ''No!' or me going, 'This is awful!' You've really got to get into character. I can definitely get into character for 'Four Letter Word', like that (snaps his fingers). I can go up to the mike and be John Lennon doing 'Twist And Shout', right on the cusp of about losing your voice. Which consequently isn't too difficult to do, given the key of the song. But something like 'Gravity' was one where you've got to get into character, because it's something that isn't natural. And I think that's one of the advantages we've got. Because we come from a... we are all good at what we do, but we don't claim to be absolutely the top of our league in any one thing. We're a great unit, so we're all prepared to try something a little different. You know, I always get the impression that people like Yngwie Malmsteen, that if it's not 85 miles an hour, he won't touch it. Whereas if I said to Phil, not that I did, but had I said to him, 'Why don't you play on flamenco guitar, Spanish guitar, on 'Long Long Way To Go'?', he wouldn't bat me over the head with one and say 'How dare you suggest that!?' He'd go, 'Well, I don't really think so, but I'll give it a try.' In other words, we don't 'no' anything; I mean N-O. We don't diss anything, until we've given it a try. We don't say, 'Where's his head at?' One of the things that's gotten us where we are is the diversity of ideas. It's not being stuck in a rock fraternity of 'What's wrong with all for one, all on ten?' or anything. One for all and all for one is all right but I like 'Hey, let's have a bit of this and a little bit of that.'" "We start in November, the UK, I think, then Japan, and then over here next year," explains guitarist Phil Collen, with respect to tour plans. "That's all we know (laughs). In terms of set list, just introduce the new songs, like do one or two. It's really crap when you go and see a band and they do loads of shit you've never heard before. They do the whole new album. You've got to please the audience. We did a gig two or three weeks ago, our first gig in over a year, and it was f**king great! We just did one new song, but it was just like, the energy, fantastic." Joe: "The most important ingredient, I think, of a live thing, is familiarity. If you're going to a little tiny basement club called The Knockaround Room, you go in there not expecting to know any songs, except maybe whoever the 2002 equivalent of Southside Johnny is, who might encore with 'Gloria'. But you expect an hour of unknown material. You can't go on at Maple Leaf Gardens or whatever it's called now, and do an hour of new material. People just f**king go to the bar. I don't want to see the Stones doing the new songs. I'll indulge three or four over two and a half hours, but I want to hear 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Brown Sugar'." Phil: "We'll let Keith sing one; that's fine, just one." Joe: "That sells the T-shirts."
DEF LEPPARD's new album X is set to turn some heads with its sweet and chewy pop direction. Essentially, it is the band's mellowest album to date. A real shocker on the album is the truly dance-like 'Gravity', on which vocalist Joe Elliott offers the following. "I'll admit, I went in and did it over and over again, through Phil going ''No!' or me going, 'This is awful!' You've really got to get into character. I can definitely get into character for 'Four Letter Word', like that (snaps his fingers). I can go up to the mike and be John Lennon doing 'Twist And Shout', right on the cusp of about losing your voice. Which consequently isn't too difficult to do, given the key of the song. But something like 'Gravity' was one where you've got to get into character, because it's something that isn't natural. And I think that's one of the advantages we've got. Because we come from a... we are all good at what we do, but we don't claim to be absolutely the top of our league in any one thing. We're a great unit, so we're all prepared to try something a little different. You know, I always get the impression that people like Yngwie Malmsteen, that if it's not 85 miles an hour, he won't touch it. Whereas if I said to Phil, not that I did, but had I said to him, 'Why don't you play on flamenco guitar, Spanish guitar, on 'Long Long Way To Go'?', he wouldn't bat me over the head with one and say 'How dare you suggest that!?' He'd go, 'Well, I don't really think so, but I'll give it a try.' In other words, we don't 'no' anything; I mean N-O. We don't diss anything, until we've given it a try. We don't say, 'Where's his head at?' One of the things that's gotten us where we are is the diversity of ideas. It's not being stuck in a rock fraternity of 'What's wrong with all for one, all on ten?' or anything. One for all and all for one is all right but I like 'Hey, let's have a bit of this and a little bit of that.'" "We start in November, the UK, I think, then Japan, and then over here next year," explains guitarist Phil Collen, with respect to tour plans. "That's all we know (laughs). In terms of set list, just introduce the new songs, like do one or two. It's really crap when you go and see a band and they do loads of shit you've never heard before. They do the whole new album. You've got to please the audience. We did a gig two or three weeks ago, our first gig in over a year, and it was f**king great! We just did one new song, but it was just like, the energy, fantastic." Joe: "The most important ingredient, I think, of a live thing, is familiarity. If you're going to a little tiny basement club called The Knockaround Room, you go in there not expecting to know any songs, except maybe whoever the 2002 equivalent of Southside Johnny is, who might encore with 'Gloria'. But you expect an hour of unknown material. You can't go on at Maple Leaf Gardens or whatever it's called now, and do an hour of new material. People just f**king go to the bar. I don't want to see the Stones doing the new songs. I'll indulge three or four over two and a half hours, but I want to hear 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Brown Sugar'." Phil: "We'll let Keith sing one; that's fine, just one." Joe: "That sells the T-shirts."
