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As hair metal heroes go there are few bigger and better than former Girl man turned Def Leppard stalwart Phil Collen.

The Londoner may have taken a break from Leppard’s trademark licks for a while to focus on punk/rock/dub project Man Raze but he knows his meat and drink.

And as we continue to focus on a golden era for pop rock we check out the tunes and gigs which inspired old king Collen. Read the rest of this entry »

Man Raze (pictured) have been bubbling under for a few years now but the British rock trio featuring Def Leppard axe hero Phil Collen are finally poised to make a breakthrough.

Special guests on Alice Cooper’s sell-out Theatre Of Death tour, the band is gearing up for an assault on the rock senses in 2010 – with Leppard sidelined throughout next year.

Not for the first time this year Collen caught up with rushonrock – and as usual we were all ears…  Read the rest of this entry »

Strap yourself in and get ready for one hell of a rock ride this week as we maintain the momentum in a massive month for the music we love.

Get ready for exclusive interviews with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and The Answer’s Micky Waters with both men playing live this week.

We review Collen’s Man Raze supporting the original shock rocker Alice Cooper and deliver the verdict on The Answer playing alongside rushonrock faves Black Spiders.  But that’s not all! Read the rest of this entry »

Axe hero Phil Collen can hardly contain his excitement ahead of this month’s Man Raze shows with shock rocker Alice Cooper – after admitting 2009 is shaping up to be one of his best gigging years for some time.

The Def Leppard star takes his punk-infused side project out on the road with the Coop across the UK in November and he admitted: “I’m totally into that slot. It’s building up to be an awesome year for me as far as live shows go.

“With Leppard we toured all summer with Poison and Cheap Trick across some of the biggest arenas in America. But I’m just as excited about opening up for Alice in the autumn back in the UK at theatre-size venues. I feel really good about getting that gig and I’m loving the thought of it already!”

Read the rest of this entry »

He’s going to be one of the busiest men in rock in 2009 but after safely negotiating this month’s Download double header, axe hero Phil Collen looks full of beans and ready for the challenge.

The Def Leppard dude looks just as classy fronting side project Man Raze and is proving what those in the know already knew – there’s more to this crafty Cockney than meets the eye. And there’s even more if you read on… Read the rest of this entry »

Axe slinger Phil Collen is no stranger to rushonrock and we’ve bagged another exclusive chat with the Leppard star ahead of the band’s festival-closing slot at Download this Sunday.

Set to be one of the busiest men at Castle Donington, the former Girl man is playing with side project Man Raze the night before in the week the punk rock three piece re-released their sparkling debut Surreal. Expect the sweat to be pouring off that finely toned torso come 10.30pm on Sunday… Read the rest of this entry »

Here at rushonrock we’ve never been afraid to nail our colours to the mast when it comes to bigging up the music we love most. And Def Leppard are and always have been one of the best bands on the planet in our very humble opinion.

To celebrate their return to Donington and their prestigious closing set at Download 2009 we’ve lined up a week of Leppard mania including exclusive interviews, archive reviews and a full festival preview.

Kicking off with a look at the re-released and repackaged versions of Pyromania and Adrenalize we’ll also be talking to axe hero Phil Collen ahead of a busy week for the former Girl man. There’s a special edition of The Vinyl Word featuring our favourite slabs of Lepp plastic and we roll back the years to Sheffield Don Valley Stadium 1993 - a phenomenal event which relaunched the Steel City stars almost 16 years ago to the day.

But if the NWOBHM pioneers aren’t your cup of tea then don’t fear. There’s more, much more… Read the rest of this entry »

After a couple of false starts in the last six months this summer could be the moment for super group Man Raze to finally make their mark. And if there is a rock god up there it will happen.

Bringing together the combined talents of Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) and Simon Laffy (Girl) this punk-infused trio belt out super cool slices of modern rock guaranteed to have you humming along to the car stereo and banging your head in the bathroom (or maybe that’s just us).

And Monday sees the re-release of their critically acclaimed debut Surreal prior to a Saturday slot at Download 2009. But if you’re still not convinced then we’ve got our sweaty mits on a copy of the band’s latest video – an acoustic version of You’re So Wrong which features on the UK and European bonus disc packaged with Surreal. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this year rushonrock was fortunate enough to witness Def Leppard’s Phil Collen strut his stuff in front of a few hundred die-hards at London’s Islington Academy and from that moment on Songs From The Sparkle Lounge made a massive impact on the classic rock world. But with Leppard put to bed for the next few months Collen is back in the UK playing a handful of shows with side project Man Raze in support of this week’s release of the brilliant Surreal. Read on…

rushonrock: Why Man Raze and why now?

Phil Collen: Man Raze is something that I’ve wanted to devote some serious time and attention to for many years now but it was a case of getting the right conditions and the right time. This is the perfect time to push the band in the UK as I’ve just wrapped things up with Def Leppard and I can give Surreal my full focus.

rushonrock: It’s no Def Leppard record though is it?

PC: I’ve always wanted to do something a bit different. Maybe something alternative and a little bit edgy. It’s an eclectic mix of styles but one of the most important things about this record is that it’s an English record. We’re all from London and it’s a very London-influenced album and we’ve even been rehearsing in Shepherd’s Bush. We’re proud of our roots and wanted that to come across on the record.

rushonrock: There’s a real mix of material. was that important?

PC: It’s a record which reflects the kind of music we listened to and learned as kids. There’s T Rex and Bowie and then there’s the reggae stuff. The Trojan Records-influenced sounds could never make it on to a Leppard record. We’d get slaughtered. But Man Raze is free of any preconceptions or baggage and Surreal proves that.

rushonrock: As a rocker did you ever agonize about the reggae/dub influences?

PC: We were a bit sceptical going down the reggae route with the dub sounds and what have you. But it’s been so well received and sat so well with what we were doing. We’ve been working together as Man Raze for four years now and it’s always been part of what we wanted to be. But over that time we’ve changed a lot of the songs after experimenting with different things. All of a sudden there were more influences coming to the table and it took on a life of its own.

rushonrock: So why the long wait for your UK fans to discover the delights of Surreal – a record which has been available in the US for months?

PC: It’s all been about finding the right time to make our music public in the UK. It has been frustrating at times, knowing that we have this excellent band and these great songs, but we were always quite positive about the situation. It’s been an ongoing thing for all of us and we knew it would happen one day. There have been gaps in the band’s progression but we were always mindful of that and knew we’d nail it eventually.

rushonrock: And you’ve been getting some great reviews on the other side of The Pond…

PC: The reaction there’s been to Surreal in the States has been amazing. A lot of the rock stuff and the alternative kind of thing we’ve got going on has been likened to bands like The Clash and Foo Fighters and we couldn’t have had a better press if we’d done it ourselves!

rushonrock: Do you feel it’s a brave record for a member of Def leppard to put out at this time?

PC: Surreal is not just a brave record, it’s very valid. It’s not just about doing something weird. We worked very hard to get these songs to click and we did this record in a very different way to how I’d do a Def Leppard record.

rushonrock: How have the other guys responded to Man Raze?

PC: Everyone in Def Leppard has been very supportive of my work and we recorded Surreal at Joe Elliot’s studio at his house outside Dublin. We got it done in two-and-a-half weeks and every day was amazing. I’d had bits and pieces of Man Raze songs floating around for some time so all the guys knew what to expect and they were making suggestions all the time. There was never any real criticism of what I was doing but there was some helpful advice along the way! I was always playing the stuff to everyone so none of it came as much of a surprise to the guys in Def Leppard.

rushonrock: And talking of the day job, just how good has this year been for all things Leppard?

PC: 2008 has been a great year for Def Leppard. It really has. Two weeks ago we wrapped up the Songs From The Sparkle Lounge world tour in New Zealand and it’s been a whirlwind few months. I don’t think we’re quite finished yet either! There’s going to be some more US shows next summer – around May I think – because we didn’t really focus on the major theatres this year. It was more a case of going into all the secondary markets and playing to as many people as possible. It’s been nuts!

When it became clear I was never going to be the next Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen or even Phil Collen (that’s Collen – I never wanted to be a little bald drummer boy) I often wondered about becoming the ‘Merch Man’.

You know the guy.

He’s so laid back he should be shifting swag from a deckchair and he’s cooler than a Guinness Extra Cold.

The bloke looks like he could be in a band but then he’s so at home stood behind his table that maybe he was born into selling.

He has an easy manner, can unfold a boxed Tee with lightning quick speed and possesses the dexterity to display a CD, a bandana and 17 different sizes of hoodie in one hand.

He also has the deepest pockets in rock. Deeper than Mick Jagger’s, even. Once those fingers disappear into a pit of loose change and crumpled notes the picture is complete.

Merch Man is making a sale and he has never looked happier. Wouldn’t you if you’d just taken 20 quid off a kid for a mass produced piece of tat?

Anyway, it always seemed like a great job when I first went gigging. Tucked away in the foyer of the City Hall, Merch Man had almost as many mates as the band.

He knew some great stories, chatted up the hottest rock chicks for fun and I bet he had the pick of the leftovers come the end of the tour.

So that was it. Forget trying to master power chords and finger picking. I wanted the disposable income, the interested women and the free sweat band.

And eventually I lived out my dream during a stint as sometime manager for sadly missed North East bad boys Baby Rattlesnakes.

They were opening up for Tokyo Dragons (equally missed at a time when their exceptional classic rock should be ruling the airwaves) and rushonrock faves The Quireboys.

And I was fronting the merch stall. I was Merch Man.

Now it was never going to be like selling clockwork Eddies at a Maiden show. Or selling eye make-up and nooses to Alice Cooper fans.

I wasn’t expecting a rush on the black Tees with yellow logo but I did have a target. After years spent studying Merch Man’s technique I reckoned 10 sales would be well within my reach.

An hour later I’d shifted four. Or make that three if you factor in that I’m still waiting for the money from a Daily Express hack who once wrote a boxing book for Nicky Hutton.

Like power chords it wasn’t easy. And there were no women. No pockets full of loose change and not even a free Tee at the end.

I might have failed but Merch man is still going strong. And never stronger than after a Backyard Babies gig.

Anyone who witnessed the Swedes’ superb UK tour will surely know what I’m talking about. There can never have been such a rich array of merch on one band’s stall.

Forget the six different styles of G-string, the paperback books and the key fobs. This Merch Man was selling official Frisbees for God’s sake.

Anyone who can sell a Frisbee to a tanked up rocker at 10.50pm deserves the status attached to Merch Man. And you know what? They were literally flying off his table all night…

Simon Rushworth