Def Leppard added to Live 8?
Def Leppard to join Linkin Park in bill of alternatively-spelled rock acts playing in Philly on July 2 at the giant Live 8 benefit? Who's Next? Lynrd Skynrd? KoRn?
Maybe Michael Jackson, Prince and Alicia Keys joining in to update "We are the World."
Lots of stuff flying around today.
Here's what the pop-metal band's Web site, DefLeppard.com, is saying:
This just in -- Def Leppard have been confirmed to play at the LIVE 8 festival, taking place around the world on 2 July 2005. LIVE 8 is organized by Bob Geldof, with eight free concerts that are held with the cream of international rock and pop artists performing in London (UK), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Rome (Italy), Philadelphia (USA), Barrie (Canada), Tokyo (Japan) and Johannesburg (South Africa). Hundreds of thousands will attend with billions more watching the international broadcasts, seeing artists such as U2, Elton John, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Dido, Bryan Adams, Motley Crue and many, many more.
Def Leppard are performing at the Philadelphia show, where they will be joined by artists such as Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder and many more. No further details about Def Leppard's performance are available at this moment. Fans will not need tickets for the show, but details of how to attend have not yet been released by the organization. Keep checking the official LIVE 8 web site for the latest info.
Karl Martino of Philly Future, a serious metalhead himself, is getting jazzed.
Yes! Now all we need is a Van Halen reunion and that will help propel the Philly show to London parity. Still, I want more of the region represented.
In Sunday's Boston Globe promoter Russell Simmons's thinking about the finale is thusly stated:
Simmons's ultimate Live 8 fantasy is Jackson, Prince, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, and Alicia Keys closing down the Philly festivities with ''We Are the World," the 1984 theme song for another celebrities-for-charity collaboration.
All Music Guide gives the following summary of the Lep's chops:
Def Leppard, in many ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder, and were more dangerous, than the Sheffield quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam rock and metal of the early '70s — their sound was equal parts T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody, Def Leppard were poised for crossover success by 1983's Pyromania, but skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage. The group was already blessed with photogenic good looks, but they also crafted a series of innovative, exciting videos, which made them into stars. They intended to follow Pyromania quickly but were derailed when their drummer lost an arm in a car accident, the first of many problems that plagued the group's career. Def Leppard managed to pull through such tragedies, and they even expanded their large audience with 1987's blockbuster Hysteria. As the '90s began, mainstream hard rock shifted away from Leppard's signature pop-metal and toward edgier, louder bands, yet the group maintained a sizable audience into the late '90s and were one of only a handful of '80s metal groups to survive the decade more or less intact.
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I wish Russell Simmons would just go away.
I wish Whine 8 would go away. I can't wait for Live 8.
I would love to see a Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth not anounced something to surprise us all. The lineup is a little of a bore except for a few acts and of course Motely Crew appearing up in Canada.
Has the drummer for Maroon 5 changed?