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 Jam! Music reports that it turns out staging a successful rock concert is a lot like making a
killer mix-tape: It's all about the songs you choose and the order in
which you choose to play 'em.
At least, so says arena-show veteran Vivian Campbell, who
should know -- after all, he's been slinging an axe for Def Leppard for
the last 16 years.
But while you'd assume the hard rockers would have little trouble
keeping their fans entertained -- given the scores of album and radio
hits they've racked up since the late '70s -- Campbell says sequencing
is still a tricky business.
"It's a tough thing for us, and we're kind of between a rock
and a hard place," says Campbell, who also logged time with Dio and
Whitesnake before signing on with Def Leppard. "As artists, you keep
wanting to move forward and play your new material, but you're kind of
beholden to your success of the past. We're fortunate, in that we have
a truckload of bona fide Top 20 hits, but the other side of the
equation is that's all our audience wants to hear."
Which of course makes it difficult to showcase tunes from
your latest album -- in Def Leppard's case, the recent Songs from the
Sparkle Lounge -- without prompting a mass exodus for the beer line.
"We try to sneak in a couple new songs as we go, but you can
really tell the majority of the audience doesn't know them, because
there's a collective, 'Uhh,' " Campbell quips. "You can put a new song
in the first two or three -- or even start with it -- because while the
audience is there and you have everyone's attention, they'll indulge
you. But from then on, it gets difficult. You've got to pick the right
(new) song to play, and even then, assume maybe 10 people in the
audience are going to know it out of 10,000.
"Running order is very important, especially
for a band like us, because our show is very physical, and it's very
up, and we don't like to bring it down."
Read the full story here.
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