Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's LOVE BITES (BBC Classic Albums Re-Broadcast)

Saturday, 28th October 2017

JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's LOVE BITES (BBC Classic Albums Re-Broadcast)

Love Bites 1988.

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed about the Hysteria album by the BBC in May 1990 and a clip from the show is available.

Joe spoke to DJ Roger Scott on the BBC Radio 1 show Classic Albums.

The one hour episode was first broadcast on 15th May 1990.

An edited 18 minute version was included on the Hysteria 30th Anniversary box set released in early August.

As part of BBC Radio 1's 50th anniversary celebrations many archive programmes have been re-broadcast. A short clip from this episode was aired on 30th September.

In the clip Joe talks about recording the vocals for 'Love Bites' after a short intro by the DJ. 'PSSOM' is then played.

Listen to the short clip (only one day left to listen) via the BBC iPlayer starting from 29:30mins into the show.

Fellow rock bands U2, Led Zeppelin and The Police are also featured on the show.

Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.

BBC Classic Albums Hysteria - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Introduction By Roger Scott

"Usually it takes years to judge whether an album is a classic. But every now and then a record comes along and makes such an impact that you know it's gonna be up there with the all time greats. Either that or 12 million record buyers have got it wrong. That's how many copies the album we're about to reappraise had sold at the last count and it's still selling. Released in 1987 our classic album is Def Leppard's Hysteria."

"Looking back with me for the next sixty minutes is Joe Elliott."

Love Bites Vocals

"It was possibly for me the hardest vocal I've ever sung. It took me ages to get it. It's just not in my register. It's just in a, it's in a register that's very tricky for me. It's just a little bit too high for my lower register and it's a bit too low for my higher register. So it's like my mid range doesn't exist."

"So consequently it was a very tricky number to do and we couldn't really change the key because that made it sound weird on the guitars. A lot of times you can just change the key and it's no problem. But on this one in particular it didn't sound good in other keys. So we just went with the best thing and I just spent a long time getting it right you know."

"Once I knew it, that was the funny thing, because once I knew it I could sing it 'cause we do it live and it's not really a problem any more. But it was actually learning it and trying to sing it fresh in a key that I'm just not used to singing in. It was very difficult, but again it's the challenge. I actually did get it done and now I can listen to it and sometimes I still think: 'How the hell did I ever do that?'."

The 'Hysteria 30th Anniversary Edition' was released around the world on 4th August.

Hysteria 2017.

Buy 'Hysteria 30th Anniversary Edition' Online

Amazon - (5CD/2DVD Super Deluxe Edition)
Amazon - (2CD Deluxe Edition)
Amazon - (1CD Edition)
Amazon - (2LP Vinyl-Black)

View all the Hysteria 30 Videos available so far on this YouTube playlist.