Def Leppard fails to attract local fans
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.