Los Angeles/Inglewood, CA - Media Reviews
Def Leppard @ LA Forum By Los Angeles Times
Def Leppard delivers more than the sonic sludge churned up by such cosmic behemoths of yore as Uriah Heep, who coincidentally opened Saturday's show with a backdated display of hambone heavy metalisms.
No, Def Leppard is tight, bright and pristine.
Slick even.
They're not ground-breaking, but they are hard-working, ans occasionally - as on their monster hits like 'Photograph' and 'Rock Of Ages' they sneak real melody into their basic riff-rock that's earned the Def Leppard its spots on the charts.
The group's second strength lies in its arrangements, which are several notches above the norm for the genre.
One wonders how much credit producer Robert John Lange deserves for this, since he's listed as the co-writer of every track on the group's latest, platinum-plus 'Pyromania' LP.
After all, none of the group's individual members is any great shakes instrumentally.
Phil Collen took what amounted to the same solo - if you can call endless flurries of 32nd notes a solo - at least six times.
Not much personality either from a band that takes its breaks by letting vocalist Elliott work the crowd for five minutes at a crack.
By Los Angeles Times 1983.
Def Leppard @ LA Forum By Billboard
Heavy metal bands have a fair complaint that critics overlook their packed stadium dates in favour of reviewing obscure new music at small clubs.
This is likely because music critics, being by and large adults, avoid hobnobbing with thousands of screaming teenagers and going home with bleeding eardrums.
It is also because adults have other (if not necessarily better) outlets for their sexual frustration.
Def Leppard's two-sold out nights at the 18,000-seat Forum were a classic example of stand-on-the-chairs, wave-your-fist, scream-yourself-hoarse audience enthusiasm for a musical form more popular today than when Led Zeppelin invented it in 1969.
They call this 'headbanger' music, not so much for its sheer volume, but because it's about as subtle as being hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.
On Sept, 10, Joe Elliott obligingly tore his voice to shreds as he screeched through AOR favourites 'Photograph', 'Rock Of Ages', 'Foolin;', 'Another Hit And Run', 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak' and other songs from Pyromania' and 'High 'n' Dry'.
Phil Collen played blindingly fast - if boringly similar - guitar riffs as the crowd stomped and flicked their Bics.
There was a great cheer for MTV when Elliott brought up the Friday Night Video Fights - which 'Photograph' has won nine weeks running - and great boos for their competitors: David Bowie, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, in favour of the young British act, they do eschew the more lurid excesses of metal mania.
Diabolism, S&M paraphernalia, torturing small animals.
And the show was well mounted, well lit, and clean-sounding considering the volume.
The band played for 100 minutes, including an encore.
By Billboard 1983.
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