[April 11th] - Rick Allen in Mexico
Our favourite drummer Rick Allen has recently been back in Mexico working with his Raven Drum Foundation.
Rick and wife Lauren have been visting Monterrey where Lep ended their 2005 tour last November. Follow the link for the full article and some pics. (Many thanks to Carlos).
[ Article/Pics ] :: Here
[April 6th/21st] - VH1 Rocks Def Lep (Updated)
VH1 in the US will be honouring Lep as part of the first VH1 Rock Honors ceremony. This will be a hall of fame type thing &:
"The inaugural honorees are Kiss, Queen, Def Leppard and Judas Priest."
The event will take place @ Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Thur May 25th. Hosted by Jamie Pressly: "The 2 - hour tribute will salute the groundbreaking bands of rock, the once in a lifetime events and the influential people who made a lasting mark on the history of hard rock.
The influence of these honorees will be felt through spoken tributes, filmed packages and tribute performances by Foo Fighters and The All-American Rejects as well as the legends themselves."
The event will air on VH1 on Wed May 31st at 9pm. Tickets go on sale April 22 via Ticketmaster priced at $60, $125 and $175.
[ Useful Links ] :: Story 1 2 3 :: Tickets
[April 5th] - Greatest Hits Book/YEAH! Artist/Halfin
The Hal Leonard Corporation are publishing another sheet music (piano/vocals/guitar) book featuring Lep songs. This time
it's titled "Greatest Hits" Featuring 22 of the songs found on the 'Rock Of Ages' compilation.
"22 of the biggest hits from this top-selling British heavy metal band. Includes: Animal * Bringin' on the Heartbreak * Let's Get Rocked * Pour Some Sugar on Me * Rock Brigade * Too Late for Love * and more."
Previously the company has published similar books for 'Vault' and various other Lep albums/singles. It's due out on May 1st and has 176 pages.
[ Retail Links ] :: Amazon USA
Amazon UK
The artist team behind the design of both 'Rock Of Ages' & 'YEAH!' has been revealed as Tom Jermann/t42 Design. Follow the link to the discography. Click the link to their website and go to
Portfolio - Music Packaging, via their menu on the left. It features the ROA artwork. They've also designed art for fellow Sheffield-ite Joe Cocker & Joe's good friends Krokus... Their news section states that
"Def Leppard's upcoming release "YEAH!", is in production again" - meaning the art could have been in the can since last year.
[ Useful Link ] :: t42 Design
And! - Ross Halfin has now added the promised pics of Lep (to page 7) which feature some great shots of Steve: Donington soundcheck, backstage in 1988 plus shots of the band onstage at Donington and one of Sav, Joe, Rudi Schenker & Terror Twins at Peter Mensch's wedding (mid-late 80s). Unfortunately this page also contains "Khazi" shots of Steve. In other news Ross
revealed earlier in the week that Joe is currently in Lanzarote (Spanish Island) where (I believe) he has a holiday home. (April 6th - check out the Judas Priest pics for Aug 16th 1980 pic of Joe @ Donington).
[ RH Pic Link ] :: Here (April 2006 Diary/MOR Page)
[Mar 29th] - Love Bites on Piano/Guitar Auction
Pianist/arranger Randy Cantor is said to be covering "Love Bites" for a forthcoming Def Leppard tribute album. The album will be released by Versailles Records in 2007 and titled "Hysteria: A Millennium Tribute to Def Leppard".
(Thanks to Sascha).
NBC are auctioning off the guitar signed by Def Leppard, Bryan Adams and others last year during the Today Show Toyota Concert Series. At the time of writing the bids were up to $1,225.00.
[ Useful Links ] :: eBay Guitar Auction (ended) - Versailles Records
[Mar 24th] - Def Leppard - Sheffield Legends
Well it's been a long time coming, but finally there is news and it is rather good news. Def Leppard will be among the first 9 Sheffield Legends onto the proposed Walk Of Fame in their home city. The full list is this:
Gordon Banks - England's World Cup winning goalkeeper.
Sean Bean - internationally-renowned actor.
Jarvis Cocker - iconic lead singer with Pulp.
Joe Cocker - internationally-famous musician.
Lord Sebastian Coe - Olympic athlete and Chair of the British 2012 London Olympics bid.
Def Leppard - top-selling rock band.
Michael Palin - film and television personality.
Helen Sharman - first British astronaut.
Joe Simpson - one of the world's greatest ever rock climbers.
I think those of us who contacted the Sheffield Council can take a bit of credit for getting Lep included. All of the above are excellent choices. Good news to coincide with the news of the 2 UK shows. You can be sure if and when the ceremony takes place for this event it will be covered in full right here. If you recall this was first mentioned here in Nov 2004.
[ Full Story ] :: Here Past News 1 Past News 2
[Mar 20th] - DefT Leppard/Classic Rock
It seems there is a UK Lep tribute band called Deft Leppard. The band have their own website and have shows scheduled (mostly up north) from June-October. No, I hadn't heard of them either but it might be worth checking them out. Their set even includes the never-played-by-Lep 'Heaven Is'. Their site also has clips of their own recordings of 'Animal' & 'Photograph'. They played their first show this year with...a Journey tribute band.
Classic Rock magazine this month (April issue) has a 5-page article on "Hysteria" featuring an interview with Joe. The free DVD also features "PSSOM" from the classic albums show (Joe/Phil acoustic at Joe's Garage).
[ External Link ] :: Deft Leppard