Thursday, 19th September 2013
Pic By DefDazz/Darren
Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed by BBC Radio Sheffield on 5th September and the full audio is available.
Joe was interviewed by Rony Robinson and the 40 minute chat was broadcast earlier today. It can be heard again via the BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days.
Well worth a listen with Joe going into more detail about certain historical events in the band's early history.
Joe's part started after 12pm at 2hrs 5mins into the show (after an Elvis song) and last until the end. Joe talked about growing up in Sheffield, his time at school, his first job, the early years of the band at the Spoon Factory, the first show (which was actually on a Tuesday), leaving Sheffield for London and much more.
The interview was recorded on 5th September before Joe attended the first ever public screening of VIVA! Hysteria at Cineworld Sheffield.
BBC Radio Sheffield - Joe Elliott Interview Quote
The First Show
"We kind of hurriedly arranged this gig through a friend of ours called Bill Cooplin or Bootleg Bill we used to call him cause he had this great collection of bootleg records. And he says I've got you a gig at Westfield School. So we had this gig the following Wednesday. We got back on the Saturday night and we had a gig on the Wednesday so frantic rehearsals Monday and Tuesday. And then how are we gonna get there? We didn't have any transport so all my friends got their Dad's cars and we chucked the drum kit in one of the back of these like saloon cars and the guitars on the back seat of another and crammed ourselves in and we drove over to Westfield School. We were so nervous that we stopped off somewhere - took the bass drum out of the bass drum case and filled the bass drum case with beer because we knew we weren't going to manage this unless we had a little bit of Dutch courage."
"We set up and there we were in front of about 85 kids maybe who all sat on the edge. Right round as far away as possible from the stage because they obviously wanted some kind of - it was '78. They probably wanted the Bee Gees. And they got us playing kind of I don't know a cross between Sabbath, Rush, Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, UFO. This just commercial-ish rock music with very loud guitars and big drums and stuff. And it went down OK for us it was just an excuse to play you know. But when we went off and back into this dressing room behind the stage. I say stage a bunch of tables shoved together, they started cheering for more and we were like really? we haven't got any songs left. So we had been doing a few covers just t keep our - you know to learn how to play you know six, seven months earlier."
"So we came out and we did a song called Jail Break by a band called Thin Lizzy and by then they all came down the front and they knew this song. So they all started bopping up and down and we were looking at each other and going OK we need to write more songs like this. And that was really where it all kind of kicked off."
- VIVA! Hysteria 2CD/DVD @ - Amazon.com
- VIVA! Hysteria DVD @ - Amazon.com
- VIVA! Hysteria Blu-ray @ - Amazon.com
- VIVA! Hysteria MP3 @ - Amazon.com
- VIVA! Hysteria 2CD/DVD @ - Amazon.co.uk
- VIVA! Hysteria DVD @ - Amazon.co.uk
- VIVA! Hysteria Blu-ray @ - Amazon.co.uk
- VIVA! Hysteria MP3 @ - Amazon.co.uk
- Listen again to the interview at - bbc.co.uk/programmes
- Listen again to the interview at - bbc.co.uk/iplayer
- Def Leppard - Rony Robinson Show 2013 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Radio 2013
- Previous News - 18th September 2013