What if Adrian had joined Def Leppard?

As far as South Europe goes, Vivian is a sellout and Leppard are a bunch of pussies :*

Why don't you compare number of sold units in period of 1 year after album's release? That's more relevant than chart position. We all know Maidenfans rush out with their money on day 0 to put the album in #1.
SMX is right to assess that "Vivian Campbell" is a more recognizable name among general rock/metal population than "Adrian Smith".

I think that most of the bad blood here comes from regional differences. Like I've said, Europe never cared much for Leppard, especially these parts...but I'd also go against saying that USA is "biggest market", especially in terms of metal. You can't compare album charts directly because people have different habbits. The so called piracy was always a strong factor in Europe. Besides, free Europe combined always had greater population than USA.
 
Yes, I think SMX is right about Vivian being more recognizable and has made the better arguments. The hissy fit however...

And in any case, maybe this is the time to get back to the outlined discussion of the original post.
 
I don't think Adrian would have brought a ton of Maiden fans over. I don't think Def Leppard and Iron Maiden share the same audience, except for maybe the casual fans that are into music less heavy than Maiden. As proven by A.S.A.P. and Psycho Motel, Iron Maiden fans are interested in Adrian as part of the Iron Maiden entity, and not in Adrian Smith. I'm sure Adrian's presence might have led to Iron Maiden fans checking Def Leppard out, but I don't think they'd keep fans that weren't interested in Def Leppard to begin with. I would, for instance, not listen to Def Leppard just because (if) Adrian played there.
 
I mean, I would check it out if Adrian played there, same as Dave. But I doubt I'd give it more than one spin. I'm a fan of Vivian Campbell's playing - He's by far my favorite Dio guitarist, but I haven't listened to a single Def Leppard song with him.
 
I was very young in the 80s but believe me, in the u.s then, dio was much bigger mainstream wise than maiden. Holy diver and the last in line each had singles playing regularly on hard rock stations, which were plentiful back then. Holy diver, rainbow in the dark, mystery, the last in line, I'd say these songs were very well played. Maiden songs rarely hit the airwaves. I still here mystery, rainbow in the dark, occasionally holy diver. I'm late to this conversation, but I clearly recall those songs by dio in regular rotation on the rock stations mid 80s.
 
nibblet said:
But would their career have been more sustained if Adrian had joined - would more Maiden fans have started to follow Leppard? And if Leppard's decline had happened anyway, would Adrian have come over to Maiden for the reunion or stuck with Leppard. And what would the Maiden reunion (ei jsut Bruce coming back) have been without Adrian in terms of excitement/fan interest?
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I don't think so...and no I don't think Maiden fans would have started to follow Def Leppard. My impression is that maiden fans really didn't follow Smith that much at all after his departure from Maiden...His Psycho Motel stuff was/is absolutely fantastic but no one really gave it much attention, likewise with ASAP....Already current Def Leppard fans at the time might have found it cool to have Adrian in *their* band but I don't think many maiden fans would start going to Leppard shows just to see Adrian.....

As for the reunion. Honestly....the big news was that Bruce was back. Maiden had done OK music wise with Dave and Janick in the band...The big news was that Maiden would be back sounding like the Maiden people knew and loved....With Bruce at the helm.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I don't think so...and no I don't think Maiden fans would have started to follow Def Leppard. My impression is that maiden fans really didn't follow Smith that much at all after his departure from Maiden...His Psycho Motel stuff was/is absolutely fantastic but no one really gave it much attention, likewise with ASAP....Already current Def Leppard fans at the time might have found it cool to have Adrian in *their* band but I don't think many maiden fans would start going to Leppard shows just to see Adrian.....

As for the reunion. Honestly....the big news was that Bruce was back. Maiden had done OK music wise with Dave and Janick in the band...The big news was that Maiden would be back sounding like the Maiden people knew and loved....With Bruce at the helm.
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That sums it up pretty well.
When Adrian left, I didn't care where he went, and I didn't follow what he did.
I did follow Bruce, because I like his solo album, and he had videos on MTV.
And when they announced the reunion, you are right, the big news was Bruce was coming back.
I never really missed Adrian in the band. So, I didn't care one way or the other about him coming back.

As to the other discussion. I was a teenager in the 80's. I was a huge Maiden fan.
But Dio was bigger here.
He got tons more radio play. Dio and Maiden were about even on hard rock programming. But Dio blew Maiden out of the water or normal radio air time.
His videos got a lot more rotation on MTV too.
On top of that Adrian was the least known member of the band.
 
I wasn't around, but I find the thought of Adrian as 'too big of a name to fit into Leppard' laughable. Iron Maiden is a huge name, the members hardly known at all. Nobody knows who Paul DiAnno, Blaze Bayley or Adrian Smith are unless they are fans of the band or read it on the poster. All solo careers have showed this clearly - even Steve Harris himself played for 200 people with the majority invited on guestlists in Sweden, while Iron Maiden easily draws 55 000. Eddie is probably more famous than any individual member.

I think this site overestimates the impact of Adrian Smith by about a million... He's a decent guitarplayer with a relatively recognizeable style, but that's it. Def Leppard were probably a lot bigger in the media than Iron Maiden, and if Adrian Smith had joined them I believe he would have gotten a lot more media exposure and fans - not the other way around. The Maiden-members have very few fans themselves - and I don't think anyone outside of die-hard fans cared about an extra guitarplayer in the band in 1999.
 
Not sure how diehard you mean by saying "diehard", but there are a lot of diehard Maiden fans in the world.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Iron Maiden was a monolithic entity to most music listeners. No one besides metalheads knew who Adrian Smith was. Vivian Campbell routinely shared magazine covers with RJD and did just as many interviews..People could recognize Vivian Campbell without being a Dio fan. Not true for H.
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I agree.

SinisterMinisterX said:
Your dismissal of Whitesnake is also unfair.
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Whitesnake is terrible.

Personally, this debate/argument/stoush is very good timing..I’ve given Dio’s Lock Up The Wolves around 25 spins over recent weeks while scanning the internet every day for updates on the new Maiden album.

The comparative success of Dio and Iron Maiden is a meaningless debate. Dio was a solo project while Maiden is a band. Ronnie’s reputation in the metal world enabled him to attract a myriad of the finest guitarists - Viv Campbell, Craig Goldie, Rowan Robertson (18 year old virtuoso), Tracy G and Doug Aldrich. The regular attrition of musicians in Dio produced a chameleonic sound over its 20+ year existence. Ronnie’s vocals aside, Dio’s Dream Evil, Lock Up The Wolves and Strange Highways sound like, and practically were, three different bands despite being released in succession. Maiden on the other hand has maintained its signature sound during every period of its existence: Killers, Somewhere In Time, X Factor, Dance of Death are all unmistakably Maiden. Unlike Dio, Maiden’s members are not hired guns - Steve and Dave were from the East End, Adrian was mates with Dave, Bruce and Nicko were part of the same local scene, Janick had played with Bruce. After Bruce’s departure Maiden had options on several of metal’s best vocalists yet recruited a fellow “geezer”. Maiden is a “monolithic entity” rather than a supergroup.

It makes more sense to compare Dio with the solo career of Bruce – both are metal icons who left then reunited with two of the biggest metal bands in history, Black Sabbath and Maiden respectively. I’d argue that Ronnie has been more commercially and critically successful as a solo artist but then again, should Bruce and Ronnie be compared? They hail from different eras and different roots of the metal undergrowth. Bruce became a leading vocalist of the NWOBHM in the 80s whereas Ronnie was one of the founders of heavy metal and THE most famous metal frontman in the 70s along with Ozzy… and he invented the devil sign, or rather he stole it from his grandmother. \m/

But to answer the original question, Viv Campbell was unquestionably a more widely known guitar god than Adrian in the 80s metal world, however, I lost interest in him as soon as he sold out to glam. Thank god Adrian didn’t move to the dark side..I would have forgiven him but never forgotten a Judas-like decision such as joining Def Leppard. And it would not have sparked any interest in them either.

Adrian should have joined Dio.
 
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I was around in the UK at the time, and a huge Maiden and Leppard fan. Steve Clarke and H were my idols, mostly because they seemed to be the most 'rock 'n' roll' one in their bands (sadly true in the case of Clarke). Leppard were lost to me after Steve died and they turned into a pop act. I gave Maiden one album after H left before I lost it with them too, for getting too sloppy and forgetting how to write songs.

I'm pretty certain H could have fitted beautifully into Def Leppard. He could have kept them going as an arena rock act, but introduced a bit more complexity and variety to the songwriting. Phil Collen is a great guitarist too. Him and H were born two months apart, both from Hackney, and they knew each other. They could have made an incredible partnership. In fact, the more I think about it, the better the idea sounds!

(Oh, and Maiden were waaay more famous than Dio in the UK at the time).
 
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