Def Leppard Hard Rock Hotel Residency

Watch out Las Vegas. Hysteria, Def Leppard’s best selling album to date is a rock and roll staple among fans and pop-culture. Not to mention everyone’s karaoke favorite “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. Def Leppard’s residency show at the Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas is another tentpole to their enduring career. Growing up as a kid in the 80’s in Renton, Washington, Def Leppard was my first introduction to what was called Heavy Metal at the time, and I enjoyed their music a lot. I recall in Junior High the metal-head crowd and their big-haired power babes telling me I wasn’t cool enough to listen to Def Leppard or even worthy of drawing their logo on my Pee Chee. So this is almost my long-awaited redemption, haha. I have chosen to show this meeting of cultures by carefully recreating the album artwork’s distinctive look against an easily identifiable Las Vegas image, The Showgirl. In my version, I have personified and dressed up the sexy Vegas showgirl in pearls, studs, patent leather and feathers to become the ‘Video Vamp’, as described in the lyrics of ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’. Def Leppard’s videos often feature a female protagonist. Her gesture suggests a welcoming bow to these rock legends with a nod to their Sheffield UK roots on her billowing cape. As a whole, I was inspired by statuesque and confident art deco women, as well as the whimsical framing style of the Art Nouveau movement. There was something about the lines and shapes in the Hysteria album artwork that made me think of a modernist take on classical lines and flourishes. My hope is that this collectible art will not only appeal to their longtime fans, but to a new generation of followers.

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