New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On May 16th, the world will see Rock and Classical royalty unite on Drastic Symphonies - a brand-new euphoric album featuring Def Leppard's greatest produced tracks dramatically reimagined, and sounding more exhilarating than ever before, via the band teaming with London's iconic The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
This album represents a bold new approach to Def Leppard's most loved songs.
Def Leppard have deconstructed and rebuilt not only some of their most well-known tracks, but also some of their hidden gems as well. By and large, they have intertwined the audio from the original tapes and performed them alongside The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, consistently ranked as one of the world's leading orchestras. The album additionally includes new vocals and guitars that culminate in stunningly beautiful symphonic arrangements, which at different points you can hear Joe Elliott duetting with his younger self.
Vocalist Joe Elliott says, "Def Leppard has always enjoyed veering off the expected path - working with the likes of Tim McGraw,
Taylor Swift &
Alison Krauss for example. So, when the offer to revisit some of our back catalogue with the Royal Philharmonic was presented to us, we all jumped at it. Although we're far from the first band to ever do this, working directly with an orchestra at Abbey Road on some of our more orchestrated songs seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up."
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road in March 2022 and is produced by Def Leppard, Ronan McHugh & Nick Patrick (producer of the following RPO/Orchestral albums - xElvis, Roy Orbison,
Beach Boys and
Buddy Holly), with arrangements by Eric Gorfain (Neil Diamond, Ryan Adams,
Christina Aguilera).
Guitarist Phil Collen says, "When the offer of doing an orchestral album with the RPO was suggested, we were honoured. But we didn't just want an orchestra plonked over our previous recordings. We decided to create something special where we would have something classic but present it in a brand new way that would involve making everything work in the context of Drastic Symphonies. Recording new parts, remixing previous sounds, taking some of our instruments out so the orchestra could breathe, and literally making a new album. It was an amazingly inspirational process culminating in the live recording of the RPO at Abbey Road studios in London. An absolute team effort that took a good part of a year. It's a new
Def Leppard album, it's a greatest hits plus album with some songs rarely heard before, it's a live RPO album and we think it's perfect. We're so proud of how Drastic Symphonies turned out and can't wait to share it to the world."
The album will be available on CD, 2LP black vinyl, limited 2LP coloUred vinyl, limited 2LP picture disc, CD/Blu-Ray (Atmos) and digitally. Building upon elements from the album artwork, a collection of exclusive merch is now available for pre-order in the band's official store.
Album tracklisting as follows:
Turn To Dust
Paper Sun
Animal
Pour Some Sugar on Me (Stripped version)
Hysteria
Love Bites
Goodbye For Good This Time
Love
Gods Of War
Angels (Can't Help You Now)
Bringin' On the Heartbreak
Switch 625
Too Late for Love
When Love & Hate Collide
Kings Of the World
2022 saw
Def Leppard release their critically and commercially acclaimed 12th studio album Diamond Star Halos which charted all over the world including a top 5 and top 10 in both North
America and the U.K.. Early 2023, saw the band score a U.K. No 1 Netflix film with their cameo in acclaimed movie Bank Of Dave. Joe Elliott is also currently riding high in charts across the world with his guest vocal on the
Ghost track "Spillways."
The band also embarked on a SOLD-OUT stadium tour across North
America with
Motley Crue in 2022 - selling over 1.3 million tickets. February and March 2023 saw the tour wow audiences throughout Central and South America. In May, June and July the must-see tour of 2023 comes to Europe, including a stop at the iconic Wembley Stadium on July 1st. Full European tour dates below:
THE WORLD TOUR DATES:
Mon, May 22, 2023 Sheffield, UK Bramall Lane
Wed, May 25, 2022 Mönchengladbach, Germany SparkassenPark
Sat, May 27, 2023 Munich, Germany Koenigsplatz
Mon, May 29, 2023 Budapest, Hungary MVM Dome
Wed, May 31, 2023 Krakow, Poland TAURON
Arena Kraków
Fri, Jun 2, 2023 Prague, Czech Republic Prague Rocks *
Sat, Jun 3, 2023 Hannover, Germany Expo Plaza
Tue, Jun 7, 2022 Solvesborg, Sweden Sweden Rock Festival *
Fri, Jun 9, 2023 Helsinki, Finland RockFest *
Sun, Jun 11, 2023 Trondheim, Norway Trondheim Rocks *
Wed, Jun 14, 2023 Copenhagen, Denmark COPENHELL *
Sun, Jun 18, 2023 Dessel, Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting *
Tue, Jun 20, 2023 Milan, Italy Ippodromo SNAI San Siro
Fri, Jun 23, 2023 Lisbon, Portugal Passeio Maritimo de Alges
Sat, Jun 24, 2023 Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain Auditorio
Miguel Ríos
Tue, Jun 27, 2023 Thun, Switzerland Stockhorn Arena
Sat, Jul 1, 2023 London, UK Wembley Stadium
Sun, Jul 2, 2023 Lytham, UK Lytham Festival *
Tue, Jul 4, 2023 Dublin, Ireland Marlay Park
Thu, Jul 6, 2023 Glasgow, UK Hampden Park
*Festival Date
For tickets check local listings for complete details including VIP offerings, on sale times vary. To purchase tickets please visit defleppard.com.
With more than 110 million albums sold worldwide and two prestigious Diamond Awards in the U.S., 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame® inductees
Def Leppard - Joe Elliott (vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Rick
Savage (bass), Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Rick Allen (drums) — continue to be one of the most important forces in rock music. Over the course of their career the band has produced a series of classic ground-breaking albums that set the bar for generations of music fans and artists alike. The group's spectacular live shows and arsenal of hits have become synonymous with their name, leading
Def Leppard to be heralded as the world's greatest live rock band. Def Leppard's influential career includes numerous hit singles and ground-breaking multi-platinum albums—including two of the best-selling albums of all time, Pyromania and Hysteria, capturing the group's legendary tracks, bringing together classic Leppard hits such as "Rock of Ages," "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Foolin." For the first time, in January 2018
Def Leppard debuted their full recording catalogue worldwide via streaming and download platforms. As they did with the original release of their records,
Def Leppard dominated the worldwide charts again, which found their albums charting in the iTunes Top 10 in more than 30 countries, including Hysteria at No. 3 in the U.S., and No. 5 in the U.K. (36 years after the album had charted at No 1 in the Billboard charts).
Def Leppard also had the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 records on the U.S. catalog albums chart. The band have gone on to amass a staggering 5.5 billion streams since 2018, reaching a younger 18-44 demographic that now represents 58% of their fanbase. Additionally, the band have garnered an impressive 15 million followers across their social media platforms. In May 2022,
Def Leppard released their twelfth studio album Diamond Star Halos. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Apple and Amazon
Music charts. The album also scored a Top 10 debut on North America's Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, marking the band's eighth Top 10 album of their career, and garnered a No. 1 debut on Billboard's Hard Rock chart. Diamond Star Halos had numerous Top 10 chart entries globally including a Top 5 debut in the U.K. Following the close of their historic 2018 co-headline stadium and arena run in North America,
Def Leppard sold in excess of 1,000,000 tickets and the tour grossed over $100,000,000.00, a massive feat in today's touring world.
Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe topped that number yet again with another sold out North American stadium run in 2022 selling over 1.3 million tickets which grossed a staggering $173,500,000.00. As always, the group keeps pushing the boundaries with their electrifying live shows.
