VIVIAN CAMPBELL Show 25th September 2018 Playlist/Transcript

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell hosted the second edition of his new rock show last night on Radio Ulster.

This week's show included songs by AC/DC, DIO and Def Leppard.

Vivian's second show again featured 12 songs.

The full playlist is shown below and a full transcript.

The show is available for 29 days on the BBC iPlayer.

Viv Campbell Show - 25th September 2018 Playlist

• 01 - Deep Purple - Gettin' Tighter
• 02 - DIO - Rainbow In The Dark
• 03 - AC/DC - Girl's Got Rhythm
• 04 - Def Leppard - Work It Out (Radio Edit)
• 05 - Soundgarden - Spoonman
• 06 - Radiohead - Black Star
• 07 - Free - Fire And Water
• 08 - Focus - Sylvia
• 09 - Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
• 10 - The Cult - Fire Woman
• 11 - Rory Gallagher - Do You Read Me
• 12 - Spacehog - In The Meantime

Show Intro/Deep Purple

"That was Deep Purple. A song from the album Come Taste The Band. The song was called Gettin' Tighter. Hello there and welcome back. This is the second in a series of ill advised radio shows that I'm hosting here on Radio Ulster. My name is Vivian Campbell. I'm very very very happy to have your ear so to speak."

"And when you think of Deep Purple I'm sure your mind goes to Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Ian Pace, Roger Glover and Jon Lord. And rightfully so that was indeed the classic Deep Purple line-up. Who wrote and recorded the big songs you think of Deep Purple. Come Taste The Band however was something entirely different. And I will admit that I admire Deep Purple as much as the next guy. I always had the utmost respect for Ritchie Blackmore's widdly widdly guitar chops etc. But there was just something about this album that when I first heard it it really spoke to me. So I'll go on record, pun intended there, to say that this is my favourite Deep Purple album."

"In fact a few years after hearing this I found my self in Los Angeles working with Ronnie James Dio. Ronnie always jokingly commented that I must've come from a black neighbourhood in Belfast because I had a white boy funk thing in my guitar playing. It probably is true that I always did appreciate something with a bit of funk in it. And as such this Deep Purple line-up that crafted this album is of interest to me. The vocal you just heard was performed by Glenn Hughes and he was actually the bass player. The lead singer in the band at the time was a young newbie chap called David Coverdale. So you fancy that two amazing singers in one band which is what made it so good I suppose. Well one aspect of it. Aside from Coverdale replacing Gillan and Hughes replacing Glover. Perhaps the most interesting thing about that Deep Purple line-up was that Ritchie Blackmore was no longer in the band and the guitar player was a guy called Tommy Bolin who used to play with The James Gang for a while."

"So all in all a very very different proposition and in early Sweet Savage days we used to include some more obscure cover songs as we didn't have a lot of original material at first. And we did play a song from that album but the song that we played was one called Love Child which I might play for you in a later version of this show but this Deep Purple line-up imploded soon after."

DIO

"Typical 70s stuff and each went on their separate ways and I went on my separate way from Sweet Savage and I found myself in Los Angeles as I mentioned working with people whose records I'd grown up listening to. And all in all it was quite frightening really and I found myself making an album that sounded a bit like this."

"Rainbow In The Dark from the debut DIO album Holy Diver."

"This is Vivian Campbell and I was a naive 20 years old when we made that record. Now I'm just a naive 56 year old. Some things never change."

AC/DC

"I will however change direction right here and right now and go on to another great influence for me. AC/DC. I was very very excited to hear that the Highway To Hell tour was coming to Belfast back whenever the hell it was. 1970 something. And they were playing, where else really, but the Ulster Hall. The high church that all of us young music devotees worshipped in during the 70s and 80s. And having been there on all sides of the equation both audience member and performer. I can attest that it is indeed one of the world's best venues. Indeed Belfast is one of the world's best music audiences. Believe me I have been around the world. So I know these things."

"Getting back on subject and speaking of having been around the world."

"AC/DC Girl's Got Rhythm from the album Highway To Hell. I saw the concert and that was just high energy amazing as expected. What was also expected however was that they were being supported on that tour by the wee band from Sheffield Def Leppard. It turns out that Def Leppard didn't have the pennies to make the trip across the Irish Sea back then and yet again we Irish were pipped as we were frequently. back in those days. Not many bands brought their support act with them to play Norn Iron. I would love too have seen early Def Leppard. If for no other reason than it would make a really nice tie in to this next song."

Def Leppard

"Def Leppard and a song many of you have probably never heard. There you go. The song is called Work It Out and that was the very first song I ever wrote for the band after I joined them back in 1992. The song was actually released in 96 and it was the first US single released from the album Slang. And you're probably thinking to yourself it doesn't really sound much like Def Leppard. And you'd be absolutely right. And indeed that was the whole point of the Slang album was to avoid sounding like Def Leppard because back in '92 when I joined the band we undertook a massive 247 shows I think it was. A world tour in support of the Adrenalize album and incidentally it included a stop at the King's Hall here in Belfast. When I say here I'm actually in Los Angeles but you know what I mean. Here, it's always in my heart."

"During that massive 15 or so month world tour the goal posts, the musical goal posts had moved and we found ourselves in a bit of an odd position as we approached the writing and the recording of the follow up album. We didn't really know what we were doing but the one thing we did know is that we couldn't rely on the Def Leppard sound. We had to make something that was very very different. So we went about it in a different way. Instead of going into a conventional recording studio we rented a house down in Southern Spain. We took some of the newly evolving digital recording equipment with us. The technology then was such that we could do that."

"As we decided to see what we could come up with and anyway I thought we made a great great album in Slang. I remember being really heartbroken to received a phone call from one of Def Leppard's managers back at the time. Saying good news and bad news. The good news was US radio program directors really really loved the song. They loved the sound. They loved everything about it but they weren't gonna play it. Because it was Def Leppard and as such it didn't fit their demographic and they quite literally couldn't back announce the song and say that was new from Def Leppard, 'cause that's not what they wanted. So it's a funny old business really. And here's me thinking it was all about music."

Soundgarden

"When making Slang we listened to and took notice of a lot of what was current in music at the time. With Nirvana and Pearl Jam probably being the really big bands of that era. But one of them in particular I remember as being a standout at the time was Superunknown by Soundgarden. You know just a great great album indeed today as it was back then. This was the first track that I heard off of that and it still makes a big impression."

"Soundgarden from the album Superunknown. That was the track called Spoonman. One of the best rock albums of the 90s I think."

Radiohead

"And sticking with the 90s a lot of great acts came to prominence in that decade and a record I was also listening to a lot back then was The Bends by Radiohead. Most popular tracks from that album probably High And Dry. No, not the Def Leppard album. And Fake Plastic Trees. Again many many great tracks you could choose from off of that but tonight I'm gonna go with this particular dark gem. This one's Black Star."

"Radiohead from the landmark 1995 album The Bends and that was Black Star."

Free

"Free!. Free were another band that held great interest to me as a nipper. Fantastic singer Paul Rodgers of course. But also a fantastic guitar player with Paul Kossoff. For whatever reason I just had a mad fascination with the Les Paul guitar and Paul Kossoff had one. He had a gold one and he could make it weep and that really spoke to me intensely. This is Free Fire And Water."

Focus

"That was Focus with Sylvia and before that you heard Free with the wonderful Fire And Water. I thought I'd play both of those back to back tonight as they both feature incredible beautifully understated guitarists that had a very big influence on me when I was shaping my craft in my teenage years."

"Unfortunately I never did get to see Free play live but I did get to see Focus in concert. No, not at the Ulster Hall but actually at the Whipper. Bet you didn't expect that. I tell you there aren't many bands around today that incorporate guitar, bass, drums, flute and yodelling no less. But maybe that's just as well."

Sex Pistols

"And perhaps it was because of that sort of stuff that we got this."

"Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols. An example of the kind of the incredible musical diversity that people of my old generation grew up with. On the one hand we had prog rock and guys in flowery shirts, big puffy sleeves taking archery lessons. And playing keyboards and singing or indeed yodelling about things running through the forest and then on the other hand we had these snotty nosed oinks with safety pins through their noses just spitting venom at us. Somewhere in the middle we still had long haired denim shirt wearing guitar heroes spanking the plank and expanding on their interpretations of the blues and I'll admit that it was the latter ones that spoke to me the most. But having said that I have no doubt that creeping into my consciousness on both ends of the spectrum were Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on one side and maybe hopefully less so Genesis on the other."

The Cult

"But speaking of Steve Jones. Having had the misfortune to have lived most of my life in Los Angeles I've run into many interesting characters over there. I say over there but it's really over here 'cause that's where I am right now. Steve Jones being one of them. Steve is in fact a wonderful chap as honest as you expect or need him to be and as colourful as a fruit salad. But a few years back before the dreaded cancer curtailed my weekend football ambitions I actually played with Steve and a bunch of other Hollywood actor, musician types in a celeb heavy football club called Hollywood United. And we were actually OK. But I think it was probably mostly due to the fact that we bolstered our ranks with any ex-pros who happened to be in town at the time. And we had some seriously heavyweight players bailing us out. I'll admit it's interesting to be on the field with these guys, you know, you give 'em the ball and you don't see it back for about 20 minutes. Still you can look pretty useful by association so I'll take it."

"And speaking of Hollywood United days here's a couple of other chaps who put on the Hollywood United shirt on a sunny Southern California Sunday morning."

"That was The Cult with Fire Woman. Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury both my fellow Hollywood United team mates. They have the burden of being Manchester City fans. Hmm. But enough about football this is a music show right."

Rory Gallagher

"A while back I mentioned long haired denim shirt wearing guitar heroes spanking the plank and playing the blues. Well he didn't always wear a denim shirt. Actually it was usually a plaid shirt right. He did have long hair and he was indeed playing the blues. And blues was my first album, my first guitar hero. Rory Gallagher from the Calling Card album Do You Read Me."

"That was Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher from his Calling Card album released I think it was late 1976. A song called Do You Read Me. And indeed as a 14 ...I would have just turned 15 then. 15 year old aspiring guitarist I most certainly did read Rory. That album was a big one on my learning curve. And I know I played Rory last week on the first show as well but it's my show. There you go. I make no apologies."

Show Outro

"That unfortunately it all the time I have for this week but hopefully you'll check back with me for next weeks show number three. As always thank you very very very much for listening to me inane ramblings. I'll try to be a wee bit more professional in future shows. Not much but a wee bit. You know you can but try. In this show I played a few acts from the 1990s. So I'll continue with that and I'll play out this week with another great song from another great 90s band called Spacehog. They came, they delivered and they disappeared. Ugh like so many great acts but In The Meantime, see what I did there?, the music lives on. I'm Vivian Campbell see ya anon."

• Listen to the show (for 29 more days) at - bbc.co.uk
• Watch for 28 more days) at - bbc.co.uk (2017 Hysteria Performance)
• Def Leppard - Viv Campbell Show #2 2018
• Previous News - 19th September 2018
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