Free Def Leppard tickets for military personnel and veterans
7/2/2009 8:16:25 PM | RavenDrumFoundation.org.comDef Leppard & Raven Drum Foundation Offer Active and Veteran Military Personnel Free Concert Tickets to Their 2009 Summer Tour
Def Leppard and Raven Drum Foundation announced today that they will be celebrating America\s military veterans with the gift of music - free tickets to Def Leppard Summer 2009 concert dates! The offering is intended to thank these heroes in a meaningful way for their service. In a time where families are unsure of their personal and professional stability, many of our heroes are coming home to families that are suffering in the wake of a turbulent economy and these families are often forced into a position of having to do more with less, eliminating the opportunity for a night out for an important, bonding entertainment experience.
Def Leppard's involvement did not come by chance: "It came through a desire to give something back and what better way to honor these heroes than with a night of music," said Def Leppard drummer and Raven Drum Foundation founder Rick Allen. "Our mission with Raven Drum Foundation is to serve, educate and empower veterans and people in crisis through the power of the drum, and music is just one of the tools we use to promote healing. It is so exciting to have my band, family and so many others contributing to this effort; it is a significant part of who I am as a person. To have this moment means a great deal in ways I cannot measure. And I thank everyone involved, especially the veterans."
Military personnel and veterans with a military ID are eligible to receive 2 tickets to one Def Leppard show. Tickets are available on a first come, first serve basis through www.ravendrumfoundation.org. Raven Drum Foundation's partners, Wounded Warrior Project and Salute America's Heroes will handle the distribution of the tickets.
For more information on the Raven Drum Foundation, visit their website at www.ravendrumfoundation.org.
View three songs from the Download set online
6/29/2009 2:36:14 PM | DownloadFestival.co.ukThree songs that Def Leppard played during their headlining set at the Download Festival earlier this month, can now be viewed online. Check out "ANIMAL", "ARMAGEDDON IT" and "HYSTERIA", as well as performances of many other bands, at the Download web site right now!
Metal Hammer and Classic Rock awards
6/29/2009 6:45:14 AM | DEFLEPPARD.comDef Leppard keep getting awards and nominations! Two weeks ago, they already received the Legends Award at Metal Hammer's Golden Gods 2009, and now they have been nominated in the Reissue Of The Year-category at Classic Rock's Roll Of Honour Awards (for the Deluxe Edition of "PYROMANIA"). Leppard is up against 8 other nominees (Motorhead, The Who and Black Sabbath, among others) and you can help by voting here.
A note from Joe
6/26/2009 5:05:19 AM | DEFLEPPARD.com
Joe Elliott writes from the road.....:
"It's been a busy couple of weeks for the Leps what with the Dublin and Download shows, the Awards shows (as well as performing at the CMT awards, we also received a lifetime achievement award on Monday night at the Metal Hammer awards!!), production rehearsals in Nashville and then the first show of the tour in Camden on Tuesday night. On what was officially a day off on Wednesday, we went to New York to do a ton of press which included Fox News, Reuters, Associated Press, AOL online and Billboard.....And that very same evening I was on stage with Ian Hunter at an open air gig in Rockefeller Park, introducing the show and then getting up to perform "ALL THE YOUNG DUDES" with Ian & the Rant Band. But, of course back in time to do the show in Cleveland on Thursday….. Phew !!!"
More coming soon…..
Review and photos from last night's show
6/24/2009 6:59:29 PM | RollingStone.com
It was more than 20 years ago that hair metal taught the kids to tease-and-spray, and since then high-heeled boys and their sticky metallic hooks have become fodder for love-lorn reality shows and slick Broadway musicals. And the answers to some of the pressing questions of our day - Is the Leppard still Def? Is Poison still nothin' but a good time? Is the Trick still Cheap? - will be answered at an amphitheater near you when the 40-date Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick tour, which opened last night at near-sold out Susquehana Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey, rolls into a town near you. The answers are, in order: Yes, yes, and depends if you sit out on the lawn or pony up top-dollar for ringside seating.
(Check out photos from the triple bill's opening night here.)
First up was Cheap Trick, who have never really left the road since they went live at Budokan, and their bracing blend of Beatlesque hooks and high voltage riffs still rocks righteously. Cheap Trick rocked the early arrivals with a short, sharp set that mixed classics like "I Want You To Want Me" and "Dream Police" with super-fresh new material like "These Days" and "Sick Man Of Europe" from their just-released album, "THE LATEST" Robin Zander, smartly dressed in a black-tie-and-vest with his long blonde locks tied back in a ninja pony tail, hit all the sky-high notes, and guitarist Rick Nielsen, rocking a burgundy tux and his patented big-billed ball cap, showered the crowd with guitar picks and fat-bottomed riffs.
Next up was Poison who rocked their hair extensions off, as Bret Michaels and Co. put on a flame-throwing, smoke-blowing, drumstick-twirling set that incorporated all the hits: "Unskinny Bop," "I Want Action" and "Nothin' But A Good Time." Everyone in the band seemed super-psyched to be back in the saddle again, especially Michaels, who said, in deference to his tour partners, that he was looking forward to getting "completely hammered and enjoying some great music from the side of the stage." He went on to explain how "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was written in the men's room of a Dallas laundromat. "That's why I had to do three seasons of Rock Of Love - my best love song was written in the bathroom!"
Topping off the night was a stormy, stomping set by headliners Def Leppard who trolled through their '80s hits - a picture-perfect "Photograph," a semi-acoustic "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" and a slamming, set-closing "Rock Of Ages" - like the working class punters they once were before "PYROMANIA" went mega-platinum. The one real surprise was a crunchy cover of David Essex's "Rock On." But the highlight of the Lep's set was undoubtedly the stripper-anthem "Pour Some Sugar On Me", which the band laid down with silhouetted images of gyrating pole-workers projected on the big screen behind them. A couple of jokesters, with a taste for the literal, ran through the crowd clutching boxes of granulated sugar, baptizing themselves and anyone nearby with the sweet, sticky stuff. Every rose has its thorn, indeed.
CROSSROADS is Wal-Mart's best-selling DVD this week
6/24/2009 1:05:47 PM | DEFLEPPARD.comLast week's DVD release CROSSROADS: TAYLOR SWIFT / DEF LEPPARD (exclusively available at Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada, including Sam's Club and on Walmart.com) has sold remarkably well! The disc was the best-selling DVD this week, and the 10th best selling Wal-Mart music release (which includes all CDs and DVDs). Thanks for all your support!
2009 North American tour kicks off in Camden
6/24/2009 12:58:01 PM | DEFLEPPARD.comLast night, Def Leppard kicked off their 2009 North American tour with a smashing show in Camden, NJ. For almost one hour and 45 minutes, Leppard played a selection of their biggest hits in front of an enthusiastic, near sold-out crowd at the Susquehana Bank Center. The show For the next two and a half months, the band will travel all across the States (with a short stop in Canada), to play a total of 43 shows. On September 12, the tour will end when the final show will be played in Auburn, WA.
Last night's set list:
- Rock! Rock! Till You Drop
- Rocket
- Let's Get Rocked
- Too Late For Love
- Nine Lives
- Love Bites
- Rock On
- Two Steps Behind
- Bringin' On The Heartbreak
- Switch 625
- Hysteria
- Animal
- Armageddon It
- Photograph
- Pour Some Sugar On Me
- Rock of Ages
DefLeppard.com/YouTube contest: the winners!
6/22/2009 11:22:53 AM | DEFLEPPARD.com
The wait is over! A few weeks ago, we asked you to send us video material of yourself rocking out to any Def Leppard song. With or without (air) guitar or other quasi-instruments, we wanted to see your best rock star impressions, and the best 10 would be rewarded with 2 tickets to a Def Leppard show on the 2009 Summer tour, a backstage tour and a Meet & Greet with members of the band.
The response turned out to be overwhelming -- we received literally hundreds of videos! Some were basic, others were technical masterpieces. Some were pretty low-key, others were downright crazy! But most importantly, all of them were great in their own way.
We watched every single video we got. We made a selection of those that impressed us, in one way or another. Sometimes we were impressed by the post-production work that was put into the work, sometimes it was the originality, and sometimes it was simply the sheer enthusiasm that made us pick one. After careful consideration, we ended up with some 25-30 videos. Those are the ones we presented the band with, and they made the final selection of 10 winners. So, without much further ado, here are the winners and the songs they performed:
John Goggan's "YOU'RE SO BEAUTIFUL"
Kim Lusk's "ME & MY WINE"
Carole Boyle's "ROCK ON"
Ryan Sebastyan's "ROCK ROCK TILL YOU DROP"
Adam Klimas's "PAPER SUN"
Cynthia Kanel's "LET'S GET ROCKED"
Ken Detlaff's "TWO STEPS BEHIND"
Talia Jurgens's "C'MON C'MON"
Steve Whicker's "PHOTOGRAPH"
Bob Small's "LET IT GO"
Congratulations to all! You should receive an email from us in the next few hours.
The band and us at DefLeppard.com would like to thank everybody who took the time to shoot their video and send it to us. Unfortunately, there could only be 10 winners, so if you're not among the winners, don't think that we found your entry "bad" in any way -- we really had to make some choices. We do appreciate every single video we got, and it was probably the hardest contest we ever had to judge. To everyone who entered: you ALL rock!
The winning entries can be viewed below. Once again, congratulations to the winners!
Download 2009 photos
6/18/2009 1:41:39 PM | DEFLEPPARD.comCheck out these great shots, taken by our friend Ash Newell at the Download show this past Sunday!
Phil featured on Spinal Tap's new album
6/16/2009 1:10:30 PM | SpinalTap.com
CMT CROSSROADS: TAYLOR SWIFT/DEF LEPPARD (see previous story) is not the only Def Leppard-related release that will hit stores today; today also sees the release of the new album by rock legends SPINAL TAP, and features a guest appearance by Leppard guitarist Phil Collen.
Released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the movie "THIS IS SPINAL TAP, "BACK FROM THE DEAD" is the band's first album containing new material since 1992's "BREAK LIKE THE WIND". Phil is featured on the track "SHORT & SWEET," which also features John Mayer, Steve Vai and Keith Emerson.