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by Ian Carroll (Author)
Growing up in Plymouth, Devon - in the UK - my friends and I listened to solely one type of music, ROCK Raised on the staple musical diet of Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Whitesnake, KISS, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Saxon, Deep Purple, Motorhead and more, we formed a little gang of friends with similar tastes. We were all very happy to go to our local record shop and buy cassette tapes of the latest releases or buy the vinyl and then tape it off and swap with our friends. We would sit in the local parks with our 'ghetto blasters' blaring out riff upon riff of the best albums that were available to us at the time - favourites included 'If You Want Blood You've Got It' by AC/DC, 'Rock and Roll Over' by KISS, 'Wheels of Steel' by Saxon 'British Steel' by Judas Priest, 'Ready an' Willing' by Whitesnake and 'Heaven and Hell' by Black Sabbath.AND THEN IN 1979 IT ALL BEGAN TO CHANGE...The British music scene was in a bit of turmoil. Prog Rock had died at the hands of Punk & New Wave music and Classic Rock had been shoved to back of the musical cupboard and the 'rock youth' of the day wanted something else, something new and the young bands that started springing up all over the UK at the time were about to provide it.The phrase 'NWOBHM' was coined by Geoff Barton at Sounds music paper in the UK, to cover this new and exciting musical genre and then it started from there.NWOBHM or the New Wave of British Heavy Metal encompassed a new energy for rock, all young bands - no old fogies The lyrics were exciting, all about fantasy, adventure and horror. The speed was faster, taking elements of punk and lots of 'chugging' riffs and flash drum solos. Bands started to get noticed all over the country and became a part of this movement - Diamond Head from Stourbidge, Saxon from Barnsley, Iron Maiden from Leyton and a small band of talented young boys from Sheffield - Def Leppard. Originally formed in Sheffield in '77 - aged between 14 and 18 - they were probably one of the youngest of the NWOBHM movement, but one of the bands - along with Iron Maiden - that has had the longevity of a successful career, despite several well documented internal band tragedies.By the time their first album 'On Through the Night' was released to some critical acclaim in 1980 (hitting the top 15 in the UK charts) they had begun to develop a style that combined the NWOBHM with American influences and this would be the shape of things to come. The band were accused of 'selling out' to the American market, but after several US tours supporting the likes of Pat Travers, AC/DC and Ted Nugent, the fan-base began to multiply on both sides of the pond.With the following album releases of 'High 'n' Dry' and 'Pyromania' the fan following just grew and grew, with 'Pyromania' selling 6 million copies in 1983 alone, but mega success was just around the corner with the follow up album 'Hysteria' selling over 12 million albums to date in the US alone - 12,000,000 equals 12 times Platinum.Suffering the near fatal limb removing accident of Rick Allen and the death of Steve Clark by alcohol poisoning mixed with prescription drugs, the band has carried on. A band of brothers, sticking together for each other and giving Rick time to learn to drum more with his feet and remaining arm - something that most bands wouldn't have done; most bands would have replaced him, but the camaraderie in this band is second to none and so they stayed together, supporting each other through difficult times.More hit albums and dozens of top 40 singles have followed and still they are successful, each album doing well and each tour selling out. With their 3rd Download Festival headline appearance now completed and under their belt and their Las Vegas vacancy coming up, things are still looking up for the boys and they will continue to be as successful, they are an unstoppable musical force.
