Def Leppard News - 9 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's Sparkle Lounge Album #10 In The UK

9 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's Sparkle Lounge Album #10 In The UK

Thursday, 11th May 2017

Songs From The Sparkle Lounge 2008.
UK Deluxe Edition

Def Leppard's ninth studio album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge entered the UK chart at Number 10 on this day in 2008.

The album had been released on 5th May in the UK, a few days after the digital and North American releases.

It entered at Number Ten on 11th May 2008. The second highest new entry of that week.

Their first Top Ten UK album since the 'Best Of Def Leppard' compilation reached Number Six in 2004. The first studio album in the Top Ten since 'Slang' in May 1996.

On the same day the album also entered the Rock Album chart at Number One as it had in the USA.

'The Sparkle Lounge' was the name given to the room where the band recorded new ideas in the backstage area of various venues. In March 2007 Phil Collen revealed they were using 'Sparkle Lounge' as the album's working title.

The first single Nine Lives had been released digitally on 24th April. A second single 'C'mon C'mon' would follow in July.

Below are some quotes about the album from the band.

Scooter were at Number One with their 'Jumping All Over The World' album.

The only other rock act in the Top 40 that week were Nickelback at 18 with their 2005 album 'All The Right Reasons'.

They would go on to release the album 'Dark Horse' in November 2008 which was produced by Robert John 'Mutt' Lange.

UK Album Chart - 11th May 2008

01 - Scooter - Jumping All Over The World - (New Entry)
02 - Madonna - Hard Candy
03 - Duffy - Rockferry
04 - Sam Sparro - Sam Sparro
05 - Portishead - Third
10 - Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge - (New Entry/Peak Position)

UK Rock Album Chart - 11th May 2008

01 - Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge - (New Entry/Peak Position)
02 - Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
03 - Paramore - Riot
04 - Whitesnake - Good To Be Bad
05 - Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

Songs From The Sparkle Lounge 2008.
UK Album Advert

May 2008 - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

"There was a thought process behind it that we wanted to deliver a specific kind of record, but that specific kind of record was, if you like, a non-specific kind of record."

"With this one it was a case of, "Let's just hone in on the songwriting and we'll use 2008 production techniques, if you like, to make it sound more like a '70s record." It sounds very complicated, but it actually wasn't."

"I think a lot of it [i]is[/i] overspill from the "Yeah" album. When we went in to do the covers record we didn't have to worry at all about one word or one note from a writing point of view; all we did was ... record these songs that made us all, [at] the age of 10 or 11 or 12, plead for our first guitar."

"So then when it came to this one it was a case of, "Alright, let's try to sit down and write some songs that, if we were out buying records, they would be the kinds of songs we [would] want to buy." So we all just sat down and wrote what we thought were meaningful songs."

"What we did with [the Sparkle Lounge] was we took a lot of songs that were already half-written and it was a lot easier. We'd go in and really work on these songs, and by the time we started recording them we knew them really well and there was not that much of a learning process because.... So it was probably the best recording situation for new music we've ever had."