Hysteria [VINYL]

Product Information

Joe plays golf with Spalding "Executive" Irons and Woods, "Dunlop 65", Golf Balls (courtesy of Shell Garages, Ireland); and Soccer with anyone who'll get out of bed. On Pyromania the guitar sounds were recorded using a Marshall 100 watt amp. But they went through a ton of guitar amps (and a whole lot of time) before they found the right one. Eventually I think the amp blew up. Recording Engineer Nigel Green discusses the groundbreaking, innovative wizardry devised in the studio long before the existence of Pro Tools, and gives Def Leppard fans an inside look with never-before-seen photos from the Hysteria recordings.

Def Leppard – Hysteria (2017, 180 gram, Vinyl) - Discogs Def Leppard – Hysteria (2017, 180 gram, Vinyl) - Discogs

All songs published by: In the U.K./Ireland: Why Bother Ltd./Warner Bros. Music/Zomba Music Publishers. In Australia/New Zealand: Bludgeon Riffola Ltd./Warner Bros. Music/Zomba Music Publishers. In the Rest of The Known Universe: Bludgeon Riffola Ltd./Zomba Music Publishers. Thanks to Jan Garner, Ralph Simon and Clive Calder at Zomba for their help and encouragement. (on inner sleeve) The intro to Pour Some Sugar On Me was changed even after the album was finished (and pressed!). It was just Phil Nicholas and me messing around with samples on the Fairlight, for an extended version of the song. Mutt came in and heard it and said, “Great, do it.” Without recording the album the way we had, we wouldn’t have been able to make changes like that. And Joe, what can I say? We’d have Foosball tournaments. Joe would look at me like my son, Thomas, does today. “Who the hell are you? You can’t play foosball!” Well, I’m sure Joe will remember things differently but sorry… I have to admit it. I was the Foosball champion. Enough said, okay? I don’t wanna talk about it any more, Joe!. ☺️Thanks to everybody at Phonogram: In the UK: Gillian Gould, Francesca Sayers, John Watson, David Simone, Tony Powell, Bob Fisher, and "Bad" Bernadette Coyle. Internationally: Lisa Anderson, Sian Thomas, Lee Kavanagh, and all at Phonogram Netherlands, France and Ireland who helped us along during this recording. Oh yes, thanks to the 40 odd Polygram/Phonogram folks who endured with us all at Mannheim, West Germany, August, 1986. A lot of people couldn’t believe we didn’t use real amps. But this is where Mutt taught the band and me that music production is about the song and arrangement first, then performance, followed lastly by the sound. If the song and the arrangement is great, and the performance is great, then the sound quite often takes care of itself. At the time this was considered a very unorthodox way to record. No one in the music business was recording the drums last. But there was a real method to the madness. It allowed Mutt and the band to explore new ideas freely.

Def Leppard Hysteria Vinyl - Etsy UK Def Leppard Hysteria Vinyl - Etsy UK

Guitar – Air Commodore Phil "Felix, P.C. The Guru, Wambo, Tap" Collen, B.T.H.*, Wing Commander Steve "Steamin', Dreamy, Snikker, Mayhem, P.T.W." Clark, A.H.D.*To be fair though, during the first year of recording the band used a different producer, Jim Steinman. After 8 months they parted ways and I was brought in for what I thought would just be finishing off recording vocals and final mixing. But it soon became clear that a lot of the record still had to be recorded. I did my best re- recording guitars to beef up the sound and improve certain parts. We plodded on for quite a while but in the final analysis it was really Mutt they needed.

Def Leppard – Hysteria (2017, Orange Translucent, 180 gram Def Leppard – Hysteria (2017, Orange Translucent, 180 gram

There are many more stories about how this album was put together. I know the band will have loads of stories of their own. I’ve mostly talked about the technical side because that was my job and I wanted to explain why we took the approach we did. (And why it took so long!) Hysteria was recorded at: Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, Holland [...]. Windmill Lone Studio 2, Dublin, Ireland [...]. Studio Des Dames, Paris, France [...] Finally, like I said, it was a great relief when Mike Shipley got involved. It took the pressure off me and his first few mixes gave us the formula we needed to finish the album. In the end Mike too had to leave after mixing for about 4 months. He and I ended up mixing six songs each.

Notes

They eventually emerged from the maelstrom with a stone-cold classic. Hysteria redefined state-of-the-art, from its meticulously sharp production to the monstrous drum sound that inadvertently gave every other 80s band permission to sound like they were triggering explosive charges in a ballroom every time they hit the skins.