Definitely Maybe
He is the drummer of the band who have sold 50 million records. He only has one arm. He is Def Leppard's Rick Allen.
Rick Allen is a man on a mission. His band, Def Leppard, is preparing for tonight's gig at Wembley Arena, it's first concert in London for three years. The aim: to transfer the resurgence that the group has recently enjoyed in America back to it's homeland.
In the late Eighties and early Nineties Def Leppard were kings of Planet Rock; their 1987 album Hysteria alone sold over twenty million copies. Then in 1991 the music world was turned on its head when the success of Nirvana's Nevermind heralded the beginning of the grunge era. Eighties pop-rock became irrelevant overnight: "it was like somebody moved the goalposts;" Allen laments, "there really weren't too many places where they'd actually play us". When 1996's Slang failed to make a commercial impact, it seemed that Def Leppard had been confined to the history books.
This year, however, has seen an unexpected return to form. Def Leppard's new album, Euphoria, is the highest charting record by a British band in America in 1999, whilst the single "Promises" was June's most played song on US radio. Yet the resurgence is still to happen on this side of the Atlantic. "It's just a shame that the English record company can't do a fucking thing over here" comments Allen. "It seems that radio over here is preoccupied with techno - every time I listen to the radio I feel like doing ecstasy!"
So does the mild reception in the UK mean that Def Leppard will focus on promoting the new album away from its home terrritory? "We're in a situation where we're over here and we'll probably make a little bit of money on the tour but nowhere near enough to make a living, so we really need to concentrate on places where we can go out on tour, have some fun and make some money." Exactly what a rock star's idea of making a living might be is debatable, but Allen insists that, unless the musical climate changes, the band's priority will be to capitalise on their American comeback.
Nonetheless there are signs that rock music may be about to awake from its period of hibernation. Radio One has just re-introduced a rock show, whilst Aerosmith enjoyed a sold-out visit to Wembley Stadium in June on the back of THAT song from Armageddon: "We have thought about contributing to film soundtracks but you don't want to seem too eager by knocking on people's doors saying "use this song, use this song!"" What about playing a mainstream festival such as Glastonbury or Reading, which secure crowds of over fifty thousand regardless of who is playing? The drummer quickly warms to the prospect: "you know, that's a really good suggestion - just the idea of getting back to basics again. It doesn't really matter whereabouts we're playing on the bill as long as we're playing. I think that's a fantastic idea."
If tonight's show is anything to go by, Def Leppard certainly still have a future on their home soil. Playing to a near-capacity crowd and with a huge Union Jack dominating the stage backdrop, they launch into a consummate rock performance. Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell constantly struggle to keep their writhing instruments under control. Bassist Rick Savage, eighties poodle-haircut intact, struts imperiously around the front of the stage. As for Rick Allen, his drumming is ridiculously tight for a man who lost his left arm in a car crash nearly fifteen years ago. Yet it's vocalist Joe Elliott who undeniably steals the show. Comparison with the late Freddie Mercury is inevitable as he twists and turns around the mic stand, prancing from one side of the stage to the other. "London!" he screams, "We are Def Leppard and this is what we do!" And they do it well: up-tempo rockers such as "Animal", "Let's Get Rocked" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me" have ten thousand pairs of hands punching the air, whilst the lighters emerge en masse for power-ballads "Love Bites" and "When Love And Hate Collide". Even the new songs happily blend in with the classics, albeit with a slightly less rampant reception.
So there's life in the old dogs yet. But what is the motivation for Def Leppard to continue playing, given that these five men are already responsible for several musical landmarks and have amassed a fortune along the way? To Rick Allen, the answer is simple: "it's just a sense of comaraderie; we enjoy being together and the whole thing's just become part of our lives. Without it," he adds, "there'd be fuck all else for us to do!"
Photography by Andy Maclachlan
14th Oct 1999