357 Hello Def Leppard - Wasted

Chart  entered : 17  November  1979

Chart  peak : 61

Number  of  hits : 26

Now  we  come  to  our  first  representatives  of  the  so-called  New  Wave  of  British  Heavy  Metal.  Coined  by  Sounds  magazine  in  1979  it  reflected  the  fact  that  metal  was  now  being  played  by  bands  whose  members  were  too  young  to  have  been  part  of  the  blues  boom  or  psychedelic  scene  like  their  forebears. No  band  exemplified  this  better  than  Sheffield's  Def  Leppard  , four-fifths  of  whom  were  still  in  their  teens  when  this  was  a  hit  with  old  man  Joe  Elliott  just  three  months  into  his  twenties.

Def  Leppard  formed  out  of  a  school  band  called  Atomic  Mass  at  Tapton  Secondary  School  in  1977. Guitarist  Rick  Savage  ( born  1960 )  was  one  of  the  original  members . Peter  Willis  ( also  born  1960  but  a  year  above )  heard  of  the  band  and  auditioned  to  join  as  a  guitarist. After frequent  line  up  changes,  18 -year  old  Joe  whom  Pete  had  met  at  a  bus  stop  was  drafted  in  as  the  group's  singer  and  Rick  switched  to  bass. Joe  suggested  a  name  change  to  Deaf  Leopard  and  drummer  Tony  Kenning  altered  the  spelling  In  January  1978  they  added  another  guitarist   Steve  Clark  ( born  1960 ) to  the  line  up  after  he  requested  an  audition.

Driven  by  Joe's  determination  to  escape  one  of  northern  Britain's  most  obviously  decaying  cities  the  band  rehearsed  hard  for  6  months  before  going  out and  playing. Joe  asked  his  dad for  the  money  to  record an  EP  independently  but  as  the  session  neared  in  November  1978   Kenning  was  fired  for  commitment  issues . He  was  replaced  for  the  session  by  Frank  Noon  from  The  Next  Band. Noon  was  invited  to  join  permanently  but  declined  so  the  band  advertised  for  a  replacement  and  picked  15  year  old  Rick  Allen.

The  Def  Leppard  E.P.  was  released  in  January  1979  on  the  band's  newly-minted  Bludgeon  Riffola  label. It  contained  three  tracks  "Ride  Into  The  Sun", "Getcha  Rocks  Off"  and  the  lengthy  "The  Overture" . It  was  a  decent  effort . "Ride  Into  The  Sun"  is  an  economical  would-be  biker's  anthem  with  an  obvious  debt  to  Born  To  Be  Wild. "Getcha  Rocks  Off"  is  an  AC/DC -like  tale  of  sexual  misadventure  played  at  punk  speed. The  multi-part  "The  Overture"  is  a  Black  Sabbath-influenced  sword  and  sorcery  epic  which  outstays  its  welcome.

A  thousand  copies  were  pressed  for  sale  at  shows. Joe  then  noted  that  John  Peel  was  appearing  at  a  university  gig  in  Sheffield   and  hand-delivered  a  copy  to  him. Although  Peel  had  long  since  moved  on  from  metal  but  he  liked  "Getcha  Rock  Off  " and  gave  it  some  play  which  generated  demand  for  a  second  pressing.

In  the  summer  of  1979  they  signed  a  deal  with  Vertigo. The  band  gave  up  their  day  jobs  and  Rick  A  dropped  out  of  school. They  went  out  on  tour  as  support  act  to  AC/DC.

"Wasted"  was  the  first  new  single  for  the  label  ( who  had  given  the  EP  another  pressing  ). It  was  written  by  Steve  and  Joe. Black  Sabbath  loom  large  again  and  the  song  sounds  like  an  attempt  to  re-write  Paranoid  with  Joe  sounding  more  and  more  like  Ozzy  as  the  record  progresses. The  lyrics  too  are  on  a  similar  theme  "There's  nothingness  everywhere . I've  gotta  get  out, oh  won't  you  help  me ?"  and  are  chiefly  of  interest  in  accurately  outlining  the  circumstances  of  Steve's  death  a  dozen  years  down  the  line. It's  a  competent  but  highly  derivative  metal  single  no  more  no  less.