Rock! Rock! [Till You Drop]

Recently I was on the Discogs, buying a cheap 45 from the UK, when I realised that with the price of the international shipping, I'd might as well buy something else at the same time, get my money's worth. I scrolled through the person's vinyl for sale, not much impressed, until I stumbled upon the perfect item, an album I must have.

It was Pyromania, by Def Leppard.

Ever since it arrived yesterday, I can't stop listening to it, remembering the joy I've been brought by the English rockers who were once (or twice, or three times), my favourite band.

From my earliest days, I've always had my radar up, looking for new music. Even when I was a really little kid, if someone around me was listening to music, I wanted to hear it, to know more about it. If someone in my family, be it a parent, grandparent, cousin, whoever, left a record or tape lying around, I picked it up and put it on my stereo, like a musical magpie. I didn't bother to ask permission, or let them know I'd borrowed their album... unless I got caught. I just soaked up the music from wherever I could get it.

Then in 1983, I met my teenaged half siblings for the first time -- it's a long story that's irrelevant here. The upshot is that I had a new brother come to visit that summer, and he was listening to music unlike anything I'd previously snagged from anybody else in the family. I loved it, couldn't get enough of it.

It was Pyromania, by Def Leppard.

As soon as I could, I got my own copy of the tape and nearly wore it out, listening so much. By the time I was in middle school and all but dropped Def Leppard for other bands considered cooler by my fellow tweens, they released Hysteria, which my friends and I went... well... hysterical over. They were my favourite band once again. I watched MTV endlessly waiting for their videos. I put their posters on my wall. And I saw them live.

In the fall of 1988, Def Leppard brought their tour to the local coliseum. I was too young to go see them on my own, but luckily one of my best childhood friends had the Cool Dad of our group. You remember Cool Dad from your childhood -- the only parent in your circle of friends who wore a leather jacket, drove a Turbo Z, had a vague knowledge of the stuff you were interested in... OK, the car and apparel may be different based on your age, but Cool Dad was the same. He never changes.

Photo from Halloween 2011, T-shirt from 1988

Anyway, Cool Dad had called around to the Coliseum a day or two before the show, to see if any production tickets had been released. If you're not familiar with this concept, when a band does a big tour of arenas, the facilities they book sell tickets based on how they think the travelling stage setup will work in their space, erring on the side of fewer seats, to avoid a fan riot. Once the crew arrives and gets the whole shebang configured, they're often able to add extra seats in the gaps near the stage, and sell them last minute to Cool Dads in the know. This was how we got our Def Leppard tickets, and our Cool Dad chaperone, in the 3rd row... of seats that were on the floor, but well back from the stage with equipment in front of us. But it was our first concert, and there were only 2 rows of other fans between us and the stage, so as far as we were concerned, we were practically able to reach out and touch Joe Elliott's mullet. It was awesome. And 32 years later, I still have the concert t-shirt with our tour date on the back.

But despite that experience, I was a kid. I got older, and different things became cool. By the next year I was into post-modern music, preferring Sinéad O'Connor live over the previous year's hair bands (yeah, Cool Dad took us to Bon Jovi too). I didn't really think about Def Leppard much for the rest of middle school, until I got a call in 1991 from the same friend I'd been to the gig with. She and I were the kind of pals who'd spent countless hours on the phone over the years, talking, not talking, watching TV together, but I only remember one of those conversations now. And I remember it vividly. I picked up, and she said, "Steve Clark died." The news had just come out, so I remember us talking about how we didn't really know any of the facts beyond that. I remember, shock, sadness, and fear that this great band might break up with the loss of their guitarist.

Of course, they didn't break up; they found Vivian Campbell, and kept on keeping on. As did I, through alt rock, local bands, Brit pop, R&B, and more, until I became close with a new friend late in high school who, unlike me, had never stopped loving Def Leppard. Because of him, I found their new music, and tacked on another couple years of fandom in the mid-90s.

But that didn't last either. College brought all manner of new music to my life, and the rock of my youth never quite dominated my album collection the way it had in the past.

The last run-in I had with my Def Leppard fanaticism was a few years ago, at Heathrow airport. I was travelling around the holiday season, when the place was a madhouse. As I rushed out of the overcrowded lounge to catch my plane, I narrowly missed bumping into a very familiar looking man with his family. I bustled on, and within seconds realised it was Rick Allen, Def Leppard's drummer... the drummer who's been with them since 1977, even after he lost an arm and had to get a special drum kit made and learn new techniques to keep on rockin' -- he's incredible to watch live, by the way. Anyway, at that moment I went right back to being a starstruck kid, like when I first heard Pyromania, unable to believe I'd been so lucky as to see one of my heroes.

I've seen various celebrities in air travel over the years, but only Rick Allen has ever given me that feeling.

While I know the guys are still out there doing their thing - making music, playing gigs, my relationship with them remains in the 80s and 90s. I still listen to the old albums occasionally, and back when I did karaoke I'd sing Def Leppard songs on the regular. Maybe it's all just nostalgia, but the music is still great. The music will always be great.

And hey, maybe now with this record purchase, I will get Def Leppard back in heavy rotation. I really have been enjoying it the last couple days. I should see what they've been up to in the last couple decades. Hey, Google...