Big Trio in Classic Rock to Perform Vintage Sounds

Def Leppard, Styx and REO Speedwagon have been performing for collectively almost a century the Columbus dispatch says and will be performing at the Germain Amphitheatre on July 8th.

With Def Leppards debut album On Through the Night in 1980 and later their best known song Pour Some Sugar on Me, latest album Yeah and having performed in millions of arenas and other venues through the years, Def Leppard has definitely become a classic with the newer hits off Yeah such as Rock On and their Rock of Ages double CD collection with all their mega hits off Hysteria that made Def Leppard one of the most sought after bands in the early and mid 80's and of course making the Guiness book of world records for performing 3 continents in one day in 1995.

With endless sold out tours across the globe and having sold 65 million album copies worldwide, Def Leppard also earned the Diamond award for recognizing 10 million in sales for Hysteria and Pyromania. With 35 million in sales in the US alone, Def Leppard's fan base hasn't gotten any smaller and are one of the most recognized bands from the UK in the US besides U2.

Facts about Def Leppard

Did You Know?

• Def Leppard has sold over 60 million albums world-wide and over 35 million in the US.
• Both Pyromania and Hysteria have earned RIAA s Diamond Award for over 10 million albums sold.
• Hysteria would produce 6 top 40 hits over 3 years.
• In 1980, the band was booed at the Reading Festival for supposedly selling out to the US with their single Hello America.
• Robert Mutt Lange produced High N Dry, Pyromania, and Hysteria.
• Jim Steinman (Bat Out of Hell) worked with the band during early recordings of Hysteria, but Lange would take over and the band started over with recording of the album.
• Vivian Campbell played previously with Dio and Whitesnake.
• Adrenalize was the band s best selling album in both Japan and Mexico.
• The first greatest hits album Vault continues to sell around 500,000 copies per year.
• In 1995, the band played 3 continents in one day, playing in Tangiers, London, and Vancouver.
• The band played in Philadelphia in 2005 at the Live8 Festival.
• Joe Elliott first came up with the name Deaf Leopard.
• Only 6 rock bands have sold over 10 million copies of two or more albums - The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Def Leppard.
  
• Rick Allen was 15 years old when he joined the band.
• A US Gallup Poll found the band as the country s favorite in 1984.
• The band won 2 American Music Awards in 1989, for Favorite Heavy Metal Artist and Favorite Heavy Metal Album.
• No rock band sold more albums in the US in the 80s than Def Leppard.
• The band played at the Freddie Mercury Tribute in 1992.
• Def Leppard was an inaugural inductee into VH-1 s Rock Honors.
• VH-1 produced a movie about Def Leppard called Hysteria - the Def Leppard Story.
• According to the RIAA, Foreigner is the only past Moondance Jam band to sell more albums than Def Leppard.

When Def Leppard formed in 1977, they were a very young band, Joe 18, Sav 17, Rick 15 and Steve 17 and Pete 17, the teen band set out for stardom but Pete's role in the band was short lived when he was let go in 1982 for his excessive drinking and Phil Collen age 25 replaced Pete and it wasn't long until Phil and Steve became known as the Terror Twins.

Steve and Phil became in separable but tragedy would strike in 91 when the death of Steve Clark meant Phil lost his other half, his twin due to an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol and in 92 Viv Campbell was introduced at a Freddy Mercury tribute concert for AIDS awareness and replaced Steve Clark.

Def Leppard a vintage band like Aerosmith? Certainly but they are in a class by themselves when it comes to the music with their hits Pour Some Sugar on Me and Photograph. The only other band that has the most unique sound would be U2 and are ironically from the UK also. If they had been an American Band, would Def Leppard have made it? Would they have been as big as they are now? I'd like to hope so.