Def Leppard fails to attract local fans
By Thalia Kamarga
JAKARTA (JP): A measly 5,000 hard-rock fans gathered at the former Ancol Circuit in North Jakarta on Saturday night for the concert of English rock band Def Leppard.
The 21-song concert, held to promote the band's recently released Slang album, fell well short of its 50,000 attendance goal. The 3,500 policemen, five physicians, 60 paramedics, an on- site hospital and an ambulance prepared by the organizers, overwhelmed the small audience.
Def Leppard, not daunted by the low turn out or power outages, performed excellently. The voice quality of lead-singer Joe Elliot, who has been rocking since 1977, was consistent throughout the show.
Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, and bassist Rick Savage, gave strong yet neat performances. Rick Allen, the drummer who lost his left arm in a car accident in 1985, was the center of attention the entire night. His one-armed drumming seemed to delight his Indonesian fans.
The concert, however, proved that Def Leppard's new album has not been well received in Indonesia. The audience's lack of enthusiasm for the opening number, Where Does Love Go When It Dies, was painfully apparent.
Only towards the end of the show, when songs from Pyromania, Adrenalize, Retroactive and the hit album Hysteria were played, did the audience start to show some enthusiasm,.
Technical problems plagued the show. The group had to stop their performance after less than five minutes on stage when the sound cut out. There was apparently not enough power to support the sound equipment.
The organizers were fortunately able to keep the testosterone- charged audience under control. Only one or two mineral water bottles were thrown at the stage. The audience calmed down after a spokesman and a band member explained the situation.
"There is too much equipment and not enough power. We are trying to fix it as soon as possible," explained singer Joe Elliot.
It took half an hour to fix the problem, apparently requiring the entire set to be rewired because the stage lighting went out for awhile.
Def Leppard re-opened the concert with Action.
The power outage re-occurred during the 15th song, Photograph. It came back on a couple of seconds later.
The concert was organized by Indomugi Pratama Entertainments, Sunvic Productions, Indosiar and Polygram.
According to Cucu, a promotion officer, the number of tickets sold did not even meet the costs of the biggest concert promotion organized in Indonesia. Organizers managed to sell only 1,500 tickets the day before the concert. Ticket prices ranged between Rp 125,000 and Rp 50,000 (US$53 and $21).
The low attendance was probably caused by the start of high school final exams today, Cucu reasoned. Exams prevented high school students from outside Jakarta attending the show, he added.