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June 5, 2009
Def Leppard Interviews: Joe Elliot And Phil Collen
When it comes to album sales, British rockers Def Leppard are in good company. Very good company. They are, in fact, one of just five groups to have recorded two albums that have earned the RIAA’s Diamond status. Yeah, that’s one level above Multi-Platinum. Who are the other four groups that share this distinction? That would be The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Van Halen.
With the U.S. leg of their tour with Poison and Cheap Trick a little over two weeks away, four Country Music Television award nominations (who would have thought?) and the re-release of two of their best-selling albums just days away, there’s plenty for the boys from Yorkshire to talk about these days.
Frontman Joe Elliott recently had a talk with In The News and shared his thoughts about the band’s success and some of the challenges they have faced over a career that has spanned three decades.
Elliott credits the groups success in North America – something that was more elusive in their native U.K. – to the birth of MTV. “In America, it had gone wall-to-wall MTV, everywhere from LA to New York, Toronto to Miami, everyone was watching it, because they’d never seen anything like it before,” he says.
That led to the exposure the group needed, which resulted in a deluge of requests for radio stations to play the group’s music that their new fans had discovered on MTV. It wasn’t long before Def Leppard was headlining tours, playing packed venues with 50,000-plus fans and breaking Led Zeppelin ticket sales records in some U.S. cities.
It’s hard to talk about Def Leppard without mentioning drummer Rick Allen, whose tragic car accident resulted in the loss of his left arm in 1984, a circumstance that, according to Elliott, actually made Allen a better drummer.
“He plays more to the song than the ego. If a drummer can do a complicated fill he will. But if he can’t, you can prove to yourself you don’t need it,” Elliot reports. Something that actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. As an amateur drummer who has the odd distinction of being someone who was never into drum solos, I know exactly what Elliott is talking about.
When asked about whether going on the road again for a 40-city tour will be grueling or great, Elliott responds enthusiastically, saying the group can do “do 40 dates for breakfast!” A confident claim that should make for high expectations among fans who plan to be in the audience.
Guitarist Phil Collen also set aside a little time to talk to Independent News & Media about what he’s been up to and how he managed to survive the decadence of the band’s early years.
Now a vegan, Collen says “I’ve felt weird about eating meat since I was a kid,” and proudly reports that he’s the “picture of health at 51.” Although he acknowledges that there was a time in his life when his health was not a top priority.
Asked about his former reputation as a boozer, Collen admits that his drinking eventually resulted in blackouts. Realizing that he didn’t like being out of control he decided to sober up.
Collen also talks a bit about the group’s disappointment with their record label, and how they do not get the kind of support from them that they think they should be getting. “…you pay a publishing company to protect you — and then everybody’s downloading your stuff and they don’t do anything about it,” he says.
Def Leppard’s summer tour with Poison and Cheap Trick gets underway on June 23rd in Camden, New Jersey.
For the full Joe Elliott interview, check out In The News, and for the Phil Collen Interview see Independent.ie.
April 7, 2009
AC/DC Announces Plans For Late Summer U.S. Tour
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AC/DC’S BLACK ICE WORLD TOUR RETURNS TO THE U.S. THIS SUMMER
Tour Kicks Off on July 28 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA
April 6, 2009, New York NY – AC/DC’s highly successful Black Ice World Tour returns to the U.S. on July 28 in Foxborough, MA at Gillette Stadium (see below for full itinerary). AC/DC kicked off their Black Ice World Tour in late October 2008, crisscrossing North America and Europe garnering raves from critics along the way. The Black Ice World Tour was given the ‘Major Tour of the Year’ award at the 20th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards.
Tickets for the Foxborough, East Rutherford, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Tacoma shows go on sale Saturday April 11, 2009. Tickets for the San Jose concert go on sale Sunday April 12. Tickets for the San Diego concert go on sale Saturday April 18. Tickets for the Los Angeles concert go on sale Saturday April 25. Tickets will be available via Ticketmaster and the band’s website, www.acdc.com
Released globally on October 20, 2008, Black Ice has been certified Double Platinum in the U.S. Black Ice is AC/DC’s first new album in over eight years and its evident the band is still an incredible force in rock.
The video for the album’s latest single, “Anything Goes,” was filmed at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France on February 27th and is streaming now at www.aol.com.
On October 26th, 2008 AC/DC played their first show in 5 years. Dedicated fans from all over the world traveled to the small industrial town of Wilkes-Barre, PA to be there. A few select fans were chosen to be featured in this documentary. Their stories reflect the commitment and passion of what it means to be a true AC/DC fan over the years. The documentary can be seen now at ACDCFannation.com
Black Ice made history debuting at #1 on album charts in 29 countries and also has the distinction of being Columbia Records’ biggest debut album (since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991). Black Ice has been certified Multi Platinum in eighteen countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Argentina and the Czech Republic.
Additionally, Black Ice has achieved Platinum status in five countries (including the UK and Spain) and Gold status in four countries (The Netherlands, Poland and Brazil). With over 6.5 million copies of Black Ice shipped worldwide, combined with over 5.5 million in catalog sold last year, AC/DC have surpassed The Beatles as the #1 selling catalog artist in the US for 2008.
In the US, Black Ice is being sold exclusively at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and www.acdc.com.
Upcoming shows in the Black Ice North American tour include:
July 28 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
July 31 -E. Rutherford, NJ – Giants Stadium
August 16 – Detroit, MI – Palace of Auburn Hills
August 18 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
August 30 -Tacoma, WA -Tacoma Dome
September 2 – San Jose, CA – HP Pavillion
September 4 – Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center
September 6 – San Diego, CA – Sports Arena
Additional concerts will be announced shortly.
March 9, 2009
Van Halen Bringing Out Big Guns on Next Tour?
No, we aren’t expecting Eddie Van Halen or David Lee Roth to be “packing heat,” when they hit the road for their next tour, but some are saying that the group will have hard-rocking legends Guns N Roses in tow instead.
Rumors began to surface over the weekend that the two groups are planning to team up for a tour. Last month, Eddie Van Halen said he was up for another tour and would welcome Roth to join them of he is so inclined. He also revealed that he had plans to begin jamming with his brother Alex and son Wolfgang soon.
If the rumors turn out to be true, it sounds as if the hard-rocking double header would be hitting stadium-sized venues on what’s being called a “world tour.” It would be a a great way for Guns N Roses to get out and showcase the material from their long-awaited Chinese Democracy album, which was certified Platinum last month.
Depending on the timing, perhaps some new Van Halen material could be on tap as well. With a collection of new music which Eddie says he has “tons of,” it sounds like the group may have plans to start putting a new album together. They plans to start getting back into their work on a more full-time basis after Eddie’s wedding this summer and son Wolfgang’s high school graduation.
As close as we get to any official comment about the possibility of this tour is a statement from Guns N Roses manager Irving Azoff, who said that “He (Axl Rose) is a good guy and often misunderstood — he is a professional who has worked very hard to build and maintain a high creative standard for Guns N’ Roses, which I support. We have some exciting things in the works this year for G N’R, I’m looking forward to it.”
According to Rolling Stone, those “exciting things” do not include a performance at Kobetasonik festival in Spain this coming June – something that has been rumored from various sources.
March 2, 2009
Styx, REO Speedwagon, .38 Special Plan Summer Tour
Hoping to compete for the attention of classic rock fans this summer, three well-known groups are teaming up for what is being called a “budget-priced tour.” That’s good news for some concert goers who have to weigh their desire to see their favorite classic groups with the associated costs during tough economic times.
Concert tickets are not generally known for their bargain status these days, with some shows demanding $100 and up for good vantage points away from the far reaches of the nose-bleed sections.
The classic rock trio will start in Albuquerque, NM on May 13th and take them through 30 shows in 30 cities around the U.S. They will wrap up after two months on the road with a final performance in St. Louis on July 11th, making for a shorter outing than the recently-announced Def Leppard/Poison /Cheap Trick tour which starts a month later but does not conclude until September.
Ticket prices are said to be as low as the $13.50 range, with Styx veteran Tommy Shaw reporting that the low prices are “our own personal Rock ‘n’ Roll Stimulus package.”
As part if the lead-up to the summer tour, Shaw and REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin collaborated on a new single entitled “Can’t Stop Rockin’.” The new track is scheduled to start airing on radio stations sometime this month.
Cronin, speaking a little bit about the difficult and unusual times we are going through currently said, “The world is going through a weird phase, and everybody needs music now more than ever. We all need to join our friends, pool our resources, combine our energies, because there is power in people coming together. That spirit has brought REO and Styx together to write, record and tour together, and celebrate it all with the greatest fans in America.”
Some of that may be the typical hype you might hear from someone about to embark on a tour, but I think he makes a good point about the need for music and the power of people coming together. These are strange times, and it seems that family and friends may be the only things that can be counted upon these days, and music offers many fans an escape – if only temporary – from the madness we are seeing around us lately.
February 26, 2009
More Details on Def Leppard Summer Tour
As reported here earlier, Def Leppard plans to hit the road for a U.S. tour this summer with hard rockers Poison. Now we are hearing that the duo will become a trio with the addition of Cheap Trick to the ticket. Fans may recall that Cheap Trick teamed with Heart and Journey last year for a summer tour that stretched into October.
This summer’s tour will start off on June 23rd in Camden, NJ and wind up on September 7th in San Bernardino, CA for a total of forty dates.
"We’re going out with three bands, which limits the amount of time we can play to about 90 minutes," Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliot revealed to Billboard. “When you do your greatest hits and some new material or extra stuff you might throw in, you have got to push and shove and clamp down. No big long speeches from moi. You have to do the AC/DC thing and just bang through everything.”
Tickets for the show, which is being produced by LiveNation, will go on sale March 6th at the LiveNation website.
The show is expected to last about four hours and is being described as an “interactive concert experience,” which will include the use of Bluetooth transmissions for appropriately-equipped attendees who will be able to receive the text messages before and during the show. Other interactive features are also planned.
Although there will probably be other classic acts hitting the road this summer, Elliot says “We’re gonna be touring with some new friends and some old friends and can guarantee it will be the Rock Tour of the summer.” I’m sure the fans and critics will be anxious to see if the show lives up to that bold claim.
