01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 28, 2006

BY GARY R. BLOCKUS
The Morning Call

It's hardly unusual that Def Leppard would hit the road in support of a new disc.

But the latest release by the British band that spent the 1980s as king of the hard-rock hill is an extraordinary 14-track '70s glam-rock tribute titled Yeah.

On it, Def Leppard covers songs from Bowie to Blondie, stopping along the way to take in T. Rex, Badfinger, Sweet, Mott the Hoople, the Kinks and Roxy Music.

"We're showing our roots," says guitarist Vivian Campbell, who cut his teeth with metal acts Ronnie James Dio and Rainbow in the 1970s before joining Def Leppard in 1992 after the death of Steve Clark.

Def Leppard kicked off its new tour, which pairs the band with veteran rockers Journey, on Friday in Camden, N.J. They perform a sold-out show tonight at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

Campbell is especially stoked to perform because of Yeah's emphasis on the music of his life.

"These songs bring back memories," admits Campbell, who skipped down memory lane last year with a solo disc of blues standards on which he honored fellow Irishman and guitar sensation Rory Gallagher. "You always remember where you were when you heard a certain song, like T. Rex's '20th Century Boy.'

"Before I discovered Rory Gallagher and blues, the first musician that turned me on was (T. Rex front man) Marc Bolan. It was a Tuesday evening in 1971 when I saw him on TV, and I knew I wanted to play guitar at that moment, and it's been downhill ever since.

"Basically what we wanted to do with this record was to pay homage to the music and musicians that turned us on."

Def Leppard, which helped define the 1980s with such hits as "Bringin' on the Heartbreak," "Photograph," "Rock of Ages," "Animal" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me," is sure to prod the memories of today's 40- and 50-somethings with covers of Sweet's "Hell Raiser," The Faces' "Stay With Me," Mott the Hoople's "The Golden Age of Rock and Roll," the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" and Badfinger's "No Matter What," Yeah's first radio-played song.

Def Leppard actually set up guidelines in choosing which artists and songs would be included: Nothing by iconic acts such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Queen, even though Queen provided a huge influence for every member of the band, and nothing past 1979, when glam succumbed to new wave.

"It is a mix of our musical awakenings and the glam-rock era, an era that really resonates with us, the first spouting of pubic hair and noticing girls," says Campbell, explaining the intentions of the band.

"For (lead singer) Joe (Elliott), it was like Bowie had a huge influence on him, but for me, before Bowie wore the makeup, there was Marc Bolan and gender-bending and Eastern tradition and blues.

"This (album) is a whole mish-mash of music. It's the most fun anyone in Def Leppard has had making an album, and it is the quickest record made, and had the highest energy. Whether or not this album is successful (commercially), it sort of reminded us why we do this in the first place."

Now if only Campbell can get his band mates to recall why they liked soccer, which he still plays, honing his skills almost every afternoon.

"The soccer thing, I'm afraid is done," he says. "Now they watch golf. How pathetic is that? We used to have so much fun at those soccer games, but I fear the last of the soccer games has been played."

With the World Cup of Soccer going on, Campbell is trying to catch as much of his favorite sport on TV as possible, but don't expect him to root for England or Wayne Rooney.

"Personally, being from Belfast, I can't wait to see England get beat," he says. "As an Irishman, I get great satisfaction out of England and (its 40 years of frustration in trying to win) World Cups. It would be very unfair of me to watch the games in the same room with the other members of the band."