Def Leppard Lead Guitarist – Phil Collen – Celebrates Career Milestones In 2012
(Los Angeles, CA)-2012 looks to be quite a year for Def Leppard lead guitarist and Manraze founder/vocalist/guitarist PHIL COLLEN. This year marks a number of anniversaries for the prolific axe man namely the 30th anniversary of COLLEN joining Def Leppard as lead guitarist and helping to complete the partially recorded 10x platinum album Pyromania. In addition this year marks the 25th anniversary for the 20x platinum album Hysteria as well as the 20th anniversary of its follow-up Adrenalize.
Last year’s Mirrorball Tour garnered Def Leppard a No. 1 slot on Billboard’s Hot Tours list. Based on ticket totals which grossed over $19 million in ticket sales in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the UK Def Leppard powered across the globe with Heart as a featured act then ending the tour with Motley Crue and Steel Panther for it’s fans in the UK. The band has now sold over 100 million albums worldwide achieving diamond status twice in their career, one of six bands to ever do so.
June 6th, 2012 will bring the much anticipated Broadway hit musical turned box office blockbuster, Rock of Ages, a star-studded fiesta directed by Adam Shankman and starring Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti and Mary J. Blige. The 80’s heyday tribute to the L.A.’s Sunset Strip named after one of Def Leppard’s hit tunes will include 3 Def Leppard hits-“Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Bringing On The Heartbreak”, and the title track “Rock Of Ages”.
Manraze, Phil Collen’s alternative groove side project now being hailed as a “supergroup” features bassist Simon Laffy of Phil’s former group Girl and legendary Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook. The three have released PUNKFUNKROOTSROCK, a gritty rock-n-dub stew now available via Rocket Science Ventures/RED. Their critically acclaimed first single “Over My Dead Body” is available for free download at www.soundcloud.com.
Originally released as a limited Holiday download to the Manraze and Def Leppard social media outlets, “Over My Dead Body” reached the download limit within 10 minutes and within 24 hours was streamed over 4500 times. Manraze’s cover tribute of Phil’s favorite guitarist Jimi Hendrix’s classic tune “Fire” has been no less explosive tearing up internet radio stations worldwide and currently #1 on the IHEARTRADIO.COM Rock on Demand chart. Both tracks are set to be released to terrestrial Rock radio in the Spring.
Manraze also recently completed a new single and video titled “Take on the World” featuring newcomer Debbi Blackwell-Cook and written for the 2011 British Superbike racing champion Tommy Hill. The high energy hard rock/dance single, available on iTunes-February 7, is the theme for 2011’s ‘I, Superbiker’ sequel ‘The Showdown: I, Superbiker II’ which will chronicle Tommy’s rise to the 2011 British Superbike championship. The film directed by Mark Sloper is set to be released to 135 theatres in the UK February 21st, 2012.
Following his other passion in life, physical fitness, PHIL COLLEN will be returning by popular demand to the L.A. Fitness Expo on January 28th, 2012 to meet and sign autographs with the public. He will be accompanied by his longtime trainer, Muay Thai martial arts champion and world champion coach Jean Carrillo. Collen and Carrillo together have started a training program ‘Physical Mechanics’ which will focus on fitness regimens that range from first time workouts to extreme physical muay thai training. A fitness dvd and book are soon to follow.
Source: http://www.myrocketscience.com
