[ Def Leppard UK - Sparkle Lounge | London England 2008 Page 4 ]
Media Review - by Paul Elliott - [ Link Back ]
Def Leppard - London Islington Academy ::
With the new Def Leppard album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge heading for the Top 10 in the UK, tonight's one-off club gig has a celebratory air. Never mind that singer Joe Elliott is suffering from a nasty chest infection, passed on to him by guitarist Phil Collen ("Virally, not orally", he carefully explains beforehand). He's relishing the intimacy of the occasion. "We don't do this kind of thing very often," Elliott tells the 400-strong audience. "I can see the whites of your eyes!"
The last time Leppard played a club gig in Britain was in 1995 when they performed ac acoustic set at Sheffield's Wapentake bar. But tonight there are no acoustic guitars and no ballads; tonight it's a full-on rock 'n' roll show.
They play four new songs; Bad Actress, Hallucinate, C'mon C'mon and the single Nine Lives, the latter pair classics in the making. They play the hits: Photograph, Animal, Rocket, Armageddon It, Pour Some Sugar On Me, Let's Get Rocked and, best of all, the gloriously gonzoid Rock Of Ages. And finally - as requested by Classic Rock - they encore with a couple of real connoisseurs' choices: Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes), from 1981, and Wasted, a NWOBHM-era powerhouse from 1980.
"That was fun!" Joe wheezes as Leppard leave the stage. Next stop: your local enormo-dome.
Paul Elliott © Classic Rock 2008.
Media Review - by Tim Jones - [ Link Back ]
View: standing, balcony, stage-left ::
Previewing songs for an invited audience from their latest Songs From The Sparkle Lounge set, the Sheffield quintet bounded on stage at 9pm and proceeded to dazzle for the next 75 minutes. Kicking off with new cut Hypnotised, the singalongs began, and film cameras captured the crowd. Action lived up to its name, with Phil Collen to the fore, and other old faves included the air-punching Armageddon It, clap along Rocket and ecstatic Animal. Newer fare, such as Hallucinate, merged in seamlessly with AOR classic Photograph, the exuberant Pour Some Sugar On Me and closing Let's Get Rocked. A couple of encores included Rock Of Ages and the 1980 throwback of Wasted. The evening certainly wasn't it.
Tim Jones © Record Collector 2008 - (Hypnotised aka Let It Go!).
Media Review - by Andy Nathan - [ Link Back ]
Def Leppard ::
As well as being a privilege, it was an oddity to see Def Leppard play a club show before 800 or so fans at the Islington Academy, given that in the 1980's they became perhaps the ultimate in arena rock bands.
In the week their new 'Songs from the Sparkle Lounge' album appeared, this was billed as an intimate show, but any suggestions they might be playing an acoustic set or otherwise taking it easy were dispelled by an opening salvo of Let it Go form High'n'Dry and their cover of the Sweet's Action.
Andy Nathan © getreadytorock! 2008 - (see link for full review/2 pics).
Media Review - by Paul Brannigan - [ Link Back ]
Do We Wanna Get Rocked? Yes please, Gents ::
There's been a lot of head scratching in broadsheet newspapers and other mainstream media in recent weeks pondering why 'classic' rock bands like Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard are still selling out stadiums and arenas worldwide over 20 years on from their most commercially successful albums. There's no real mystery here: class is permanent. It's never been 'cool' to like Def Leppard - when they were selling 18 million copies of Hysteria worldwide in '87/'88 the eyes of the rock world were on Guns N'Roses. When Adrenalize topped the UK and US charts in 1992, everyone was talking about Nirvana and the death of hair metal. And yet here we are in 2008, post-grunge, post nu-metal (and post-emo?) and the band have a new album in the UK Top 10 and US Top 5. Who's laughing now?.
Tonight is a launch show for that album, Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, with a free bar for the media upstairs and just a few hundred hardcore fans downstairs in a venue with a capacity less than one tenth of the 10,000 who'll be checking out the quintet next month. And tonight Def Leppard are fantastic. If this was only about nostalgia and '80s uber anthems - Animal, Pour Some Sugar On Me, Photograph, Rocket - it'd still be great, but the best thing about tonight is how strong Leppard's new songs are. Bad Actress - "not about Lindsay Lohan...though it could be..." quips frontman Joe Elliott - Hallucinate and the excellent C'mon C'mon sound like stadium slayers already, all immaculately stacked melodies and buffed riffs...and they're not even the best songs on the new album. Songs From The Sparkle Lounge won't make Def Leppard 'cool' either, but the mile-wide smiles on the faces of both band and audience at the end of this special 75-minute show suggests that this isn't really gonna matter much to anyone at all.
Paul Brannigan © Kerrang! 2008.
Media Review - by David Smyth - [ Link Back ]
Sugar rush for rockers ::
One of London's least glamorous venues became the Sparkle Lounge for one night only, as its drab shopping centre entrance was given a glittery new carpet in honour of Def Leppard's new album.
Last week's Songs From The Sparkle Lounge is unlikely to match the 10 and 20 million-plus sales of the Sheffield rockers' fist-pumping classics Pyromania and Hysteria. Yet they have rarely been more popular as a live draw. They play Wembley Arena with Whitesnake on 26 June.
The tiny crowd gathered for this fireworks-free preview had to endure a few too many plugs for the new release, and the realisation that the row of moist middle-aged chests displayed on stage aren't so appealing when you're not 100 yards away. But it was fascinating to see the miracle of one-armed drummer Rick Allen up close, and the band seemed energised by the chance to perform within touching distance of one another.
New song Bad Actress had the most fire, a racing screamer that singer Joe Elliott insisted was "not about Lindsay Lohan". Nine Lives strayed further from the heavy metal template, a chugging country rocker that could have been a hit for Shania Twain.
Elliott was not naive enough to believe that these tracks could take the place of Def Leppard’s greatest moments. "I've been to a Rolling Stones gig and I just want Brown Sugar, too." Their own saccharine delight, Pour Some Sugar On Me, was duly wheeled out, as well as other shoutalong favourites including Animal, Armageddon It and Let's Get Rocked.
These hits could not be better suited for thrilling vast crowds. Pleasant though the Sparkle Lounge is, soon they'll be back in their rightful place.
David Smyth © London Evening Standard 2008.
Media Review - by Dave Ling - [ Link Back ]
Wednesday 7th May ::
Despite my state of exhuastion, there was no danger of nodding off at last night's Def Leppard gig. It's been a while since Leppard had played such an intimate hall as the Islington Academy, and with the downstairs area full of cheering fans and the balcony stuffed with media representatives making the most of a free bar, a good night was had by just about everyone. Intended as a promotional bash for the just-released 'Songs From The Sparkle Lounge' album, the band featured four songs from their new baby, including my own favourite, 'Bad Actress' (which Joe Elliott grinned "isn't necessarily about Lindsay Lohan - but it might be"). Elliott was clearly still struggling with the illness that forced the cancellation of some US not too long ago, but the band seemed to be having fun despite the unusally crammed surroundings. Indeed, they even returned for an unscheduled second encore, reeling back the years to their first two albums with 'Mirror, Mirror (Look into My Eyes)' and the timeless 'Wasted'. Here's what filled Leppard's 75 minutes onstage: 'Let It Go', 'Action', 'Bad Actress', 'Armageddon It', 'Rocket', 'Nine Lives', 'Hallucinate', 'Animal', 'Photograph', 'Pour Some Sugar On Me', 'Let's Get Rocked', 'C'Mon C'Mon', 'Rock Of Ages', 'Mirror, Mirror (Look into My Eyes)' and 'Wasted'. Not bad at all, huh?
© Dave Ling.co.uk 2008.