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DEF LEPPARD:
YOUNG BAND LEARNS FAST
by Lloyd Sachs

Five working-class lads from Sheffield, England, couldn't have asked for a more American evening. After opening for Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz at the very suburban Poplar Creek Music Theatre outside Chicago, the members of Def Leppard had the choice of unwinding in either of two bars in their Holiday Inn: the one in which an Elvis imitator was to perform or the one in which a pre-season football game between the Cowboys and Steelers was being viewed on a huge TV screen.

That they chose the football bar was not surprising. The members, whose average age is only 20, are too young to remember Presley mania. "We grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Queen," said lead singer Joe Elliott, at 21 the band's elder statesman. "That's the music that matters most to us; that's the only kind of music we want to play."

Since an independently produced EP established Def Leppard two years ago, their youthfulness had been a popular topic for the press, but one of the members are tired of discussing. "Ten years from now, they'll be saying we used to be young," quipped Elliott. The fascination with their Wunderkind status, thought, is understandable. It's rare that a band this young can combine the unfaked adolescent exuberance and charisma it flashes on-stage with the kind of assuredness and direction most groups take years to develop. Crisp, economical and, well, almost light-handed in its heavy-metal basics. Leppard's recently released second album, "High'n'Dry," hardly sounds like the work of newcomers.

"We had to learn the ropes fast," said Elliott. "The EP got such a good response that before we knew it, we were opening for people like AC-DC and Sammy Hagar in front of big crowds. We made fools of ourselves a few times, I suppose, but we got it out of our system. Now, the bigger the crowds are, the more we're turned on."

Leppard's swift rise had drawn the resentment of musicians who weren't so lucky. And, at a time when its homeland is torn by unrest, the group is the recipient of digs that its songs don't have anything meaningful to say about the times.

"I have to admit that I don't even know the difference between Labor and Conservative and Socialist," said Elliott. "But even if I did, I wouldn't use the bandstand as a platform to air political views. Kids don't want that. They want to escape from the stuff when they go hear rock & roll.

"I'm confident about this band. We have the chance to be around as long as the Stones or the Kinks, but even if we're not, we can hopefully get record companies to start signing more young bands. It would be good to get that ball rolling, to show people that you just don't have to be 31, or 32 to make good music."

Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc.