That time Jeff Keith called me up and told me what Tesla had been up to since releasing its debut album

By Steve Newton Back in June of 1988 Tesla frontman Jeff Keith called me up from his home in Sacramento in advance of his band’s Canadian tour with Def Leppard. Early in the interview I asked Keith what the group had been up to since releasing its debut album, Mechanical Resonance, a year and a … Continue reading That time Jeff Keith called me up and told me what Tesla had been up to since releasing its debut album

That time I called up Steve Clark and asked him how Def Leppard’s Hysteria tour was going

By Steve Newton Back on June 6 of 1988 I called up Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark at his hotel room in Moncton, New Brunswick. It was the first date of the Canadian leg of the band’s hugely successful Hysteria World Tour, and they were as popular as they would ever get. A month later … Continue reading That time I called up Steve Clark and asked him how Def Leppard’s Hysteria tour was going

That time I asked Peter Goalby if the members of Uriah Heep feel old when they see the young lads in Def Leppard take the stage

By Steve Newton Back in June of 1983 I interviewed Uriah Heep vocalist Peter Goalby on the phone from Texas. A week later his band would join Def Leppard on the Canadian leg of its hugely successful Pyromania World Tour. Since the average age of the Def Leppard members was around 21 or something, I … Continue reading That time I asked Peter Goalby if the members of Uriah Heep feel old when they see the young lads in Def Leppard take the stage

That time I asked Gary Moore why he thought Def Leppard got so huge so fast, unlike Thin Lizzy

By Steve Newton Back in May of 1984 I did my one and only interview with Gary Moore, who’s one of my all-time favourite guitarists. Man that guy could play. I called him up in Reno, where he was touring with Rush. The previous summer he’d toured with Def Leppard after they released their breakthrough … Continue reading That time I asked Gary Moore why he thought Def Leppard got so huge so fast, unlike Thin Lizzy

That time Steve Clark told me why it took Def Leppard so long to follow up Pyromania with Hysteria

By Steve Newton Back in the ’80s, most successful recording bands liked to put an album out every year. Sometimes they’d skip a year, to vacation in the Bahamas or release a live or best-of LP. After three years their fans would start to get a bit worried, and so would their record label–especially if … Continue reading That time Steve Clark told me why it took Def Leppard so long to follow up Pyromania with Hysteria

That time I asked Steve Clark what the guys in Def Leppard liked to do to pass time on the road

By Steve Newton When I interviewed Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark back in June of 1988 his band was flying about as high as it would ever get, touring behind its most popular album, Hysteria. As a group of fun-loving rock ‘n’ rollers in their twenties, selling millions of albums and packing arenas, Clark and … Continue reading That time I asked Steve Clark what the guys in Def Leppard liked to do to pass time on the road

Album review: Loverboy, Just Getting Started (2007)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 8, 2007 By Steve Newton “Just getting started”, my ass; these guys were toast ages ago. Do we really need them to step out of the Lamborghinis they’ve driven from their mortgage-free mansions to create the kind of ultra formulaic fodder Bon Jovi got bored with around 1983? … Continue reading Album review: Loverboy, Just Getting Started (2007)

That time Joe Elliott told me that Def Leppard wasn’t a big-hair band, and didn’t belong in “the Winger/Warrant/Ratt category”

By Steve Newton Joe Elliott is the fourth Def Leppard member I’ve interviewed. I started off with bassist Rick Savage in 1983, hooked up with guitarist Steve Clark in ’88, and chatted with VIvian Campbell–the guy who took Clark’s place after he died–in 1992. I didn’t get around to talking with Elliott until 2003, when … Continue reading That time Joe Elliott told me that Def Leppard wasn’t a big-hair band, and didn’t belong in “the Winger/Warrant/Ratt category”

That time Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell told me that he got paid less than the road crew in Dio

By Steve Newton I interviewed Irish guitar hero Vivian Campbell in September of 1992, three weeks after his 30th birthday. Five months earlier he’d joined Def Leppard, one of the world’s most popular rock bands, apparently being chosen over the likes of John Sykes, Gary Hoey, and Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden. So no wonder … Continue reading That time Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell told me that he got paid less than the road crew in Dio

Album review: Honeymoon Suite, Honeymoon Suite (1984)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 10, 1984 By Steve Newton If you like the heavy, melodic rock of Def Leppard, but with a more poppy, Loverboy effect, then the debut LP from Eastern Canada’s Honeymoon Suite is well worth checking out. Although the album starts off weakly–with the plodding, lackluster “New Girl Now”–things change quickly with … Continue reading Album review: Honeymoon Suite, Honeymoon Suite (1984)

Kingdom Come hopes to avoid Zeppelin comparisons with new In Your Face LP

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 30, 1989 By Steve Newton Diehard Led Zeppelin fans were either impressed or outraged when Kingdom Come’s debut album came out two years ago. The LP–made here in Vancouver at Little Mountain Sound and produced by Bob Rock–sounded an awful lot like a tribute to (or cloning of) Messrs. Page and … Continue reading Kingdom Come hopes to avoid Zeppelin comparisons with new In Your Face LP

Gary Moore talks covering the Yardbirds and scoring with metal while opening for Rush

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 18, 1984 By Steve Newton “I always liked the Yardbirds when I was a kid,” says metal guitar-hero Gary Moore. “I was always into Jeff Beck and everything. And apart from the fact that I like the song and the guitar, the lyrics appealed to me as well because they fitted … Continue reading Gary Moore talks covering the Yardbirds and scoring with metal while opening for Rush

Album review: Mick Ronson, Heaven and Hull (1994)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 27, 1994 By Steve Newton From his early-’70s glory-and-glitter days as the muscular, platinum-haired axeman in David Bowie‘s Spiders from Mars to his workmanlike late-’80s club gigs with Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson always proved himself a rock guitarist of the highest order. When Ronson succumbed to cancer on … Continue reading Album review: Mick Ronson, Heaven and Hull (1994)