Originally formed in 1977 in Sheffield, England by five teenagers who really liked glam rock, Def Leppard became grouped with the NWOBHM before turning early-MTV pop-rock sweethearts. After kicking out a founding guitarist for too much drunken tomfoolery (Pete Willis), they released a well-received rock album (Pyromania), lost another sixth of a member (Rick Allen's left arm), released a phenomenally successful pop-rock record (Hysteria), which was essentially aiming to be "the hard rock version of Thriller", then the other original guitarist drank himself to death over the course of a few years (Steve Clark).Best known for predicating a thirty-year career on the bawdyChorus-Only Song, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and the terribly unfunny joke, "What has nine arms and sucks?", they continue to release records (much more often than in their heyday) and do a world tour almost every year since 2003 despite becoming musical pariahs in the post-grunge era.Recently the band have experienced something of a career resurgence with well received collaborations with Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift introducing them to a new audience.They are one of only five bands to have two original (non-greatest hits or live) albums sell more than ten million copies each; the others being Van Halen, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Musically, they are known for melodic dual lead guitarists, four-part harmonies both on record and live, and massively over-produced, Queen-esque albums.Members:
Joe Elliott never met a bad metaphor he didn't put in a song.
Rick Savage used to be "the Cute One" (even getting name-checked to that end on Heroes).
This band provides examples of:
Album Title Drop: Pyromania gets its title from a line in the song "Rock Of Ages". Strangely, "On Through the Night" off of their second album shares the title of their first album.
Bawdy Song: "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Let's Get Rocked", "Rock Rock (Til You Drop)", "Women", "Make Love Like a Man", and that doesn't count album tracks.
Determinator - Rick Allen after his accident learning to play one handed. To the point after one show on the comeback tour after the accident the backup drummer on standby in case Rick couldn't play the songs said to the rest of the band essentially "You guys don't need me here" and flew home.
The Eighties: Seriously big during that era with Pyromania and Hysteria selling truckloads, high charting singles and huge tours.
Epic Instrumental Opener: "Gods of War" has a fifty second instrumental intro, followed by nearly a minute of the main tune being played before Joe begins singing.
Epic Rocking: They often include one or more long songs on they're releases. Pyromania has "Die Hard the Hunter" at 6:17, Hysteria has two equally long songs with "Rocket" and "Gods of War" both at 6:37, Adrenalize chips in with "White Lightning" at 7:03, Slang gives us "Pearl of Euphoria" at 6:21; their longest song by far is "Overture" from On Through The Night, though they dialed back the song lengths on more recent albums.
Hair Metal: The band themselves deny that they were part of the genre and Joe Elliott has been somewhat dismissive of other hair bands when asked about Leppard's association with the style. They count the British glam bands from the 1970s, such as T. Rex and Sweet, as key influences. However it seems more a reaction to ignorant media types pigeonholing the band than genunine animosity as Leppard have toured with Mötley Crüe, Poison and Steel Panther amongst others.
Handicapped Badass: Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car accident. His response? Get a specialized drum kit and keep playing.
Heavy Meta: "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", "Let's Get Rocked", "Rock of Ages", "Rock Brigade", "Rocket".
Intercourse with You: If you shake one of their records, several of these songs will fall out.
Lighter and Softer: Their first two albums were definitely Heavy Metal, even showing a noticeable NWOBHM influence, but starting with their third album Pyromania they adopted a more radio-friendly hard rock sound. Their fourth album, Hysteria, moved even further in this direction due to nearly half the songs being ballads.
Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: In their beginnings and on Pyromania, they were a solid 5, sometimes even a 6. By the time Hysteria rolled around, they had softened to a 4. High & Dry seems to be a 7. Perhaps a weak one, but most of the time it's clearly metal, and On Through the Night is slightly stronger on that front. Phil Collen has remarked on the trend ("We were always halfway between heavy metal and Duran Duran").
Myspeld Rökband: They were originally called Atomic Mass, which was changed to Deaf Leapord. They became Def Leppard on Joe Elliott's suggestion after he joined the group as a tribute to Led Zeppelin (who deliberately misspelled the first word in their name) and to differentiate themselves from punk bands who named themselves after animals.
New Sound Album: Slang. To be fair, Joe Elliott had been making noises about wanting to explore new sounds as far back as Hysteria.
Also applicable to "Photograph" when, after a few listens, one realizes the singer doesn't actually have a relationship with the woman in question, and is merely obsessing over her photograph (although Joe Elliott insists that it's a tribute to Marilyn Monroe).
Step Up to the Microphone: They have four pretty good singers (Rick Allen only tends to do backing vocals during live shows), so it's no surprise that somebody other than Joe took the opportunity to sing lead for a couple of songs on Yeah! Sav does the lead vocals on their cover of "Dear Friends", while Phil sings and plays all the instruments on "Stay With Me".
Technician Versus Performer: Steve Clark was the performer while Phil Collen is a technician. While Phil remains one of the group's most prolific songwriters, Steve very rarely composed songs, instead contributing partial ideas and riffs to other compositions. After he died, Phil was almost driven to leave the band himself out of frustration over his struggles to emulate Steve's playing style.
Ironically enough, Steve was initially hired because he was a better player than original guitarist Pete Willis.
Def Leppard were the subject of a Made-for-TV Movie in 2001. Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story follows the band's beginnings and rise to stardom, focusing especially on the alcoholism of both Pete Willis and Steve Clark and on Rick's accident. There's also a little something about Pyromania and Hysteria in there somewhere.
The Determinator: Joe Elliott. Also "Mutt" Lange, once he shows up.
Henpecked Boyfriend: Original drummer Tony Kenning is forced by his girlfriend to quit the band. In reality she was a factor, but not the only one or even the main one.
When first auditioning for the band, Rick plays in the style of several drummers, then falls off his drumstool. He's just imitating the drunken antics of Keith Moon.
In a Call Back to the above: When first trying out his new electronic kit with the band after his accident, Rick can't get the timing right, gets frustrated and falls off his stool. He echoes the audition incident to reassure the band.
Backstage at his first on-stage performance after the accident, Rick is practicing stick-twirls but drops the stick. After a dead silence falls over the room, Rick invokes the trope word for word.
Pragmatic Adaptation: The band's history is compressed into a tidy 90-minute package.
Composite Character: Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein, the band's early managerial team, are compiled into one person.
Satellite Character: Rick Savage is barely in the movie at all, and tends to just stand around when he is; he neither says nor does anything to drive the plot.
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