YTF - Vivien Campbell in Dio (1985)

[bunghole]

oh, and as if you all didn't know, Holy Diver is one fantastic album. Not a bad tune in the bunch

 

[voodooamps]

But he never played on any Whitesnake recordings or anything and shared the stage with Vandenburg, so I never really noticed him much in that band. Plus he was only in Whitesnake for one tour or something.

Viv did the big tour to support the 1987 Whitesnake record. When it was time to track the new record David employed the talents of Steve Via for the sessions, who also toured to support that record ("Slip of the tongue" if memory serves).

He disappeared for several years (yeah he was around I guess, but not in really popular bands),

He had formed his own back Riverdogs, which was lighter than Dio or Whitesnake but had some good song writing.

then reappeared in Def Leppard as more-or-less, the rhythm guy. WTF? I'm still shocked by that.

The lead duties are split about 50/50 between Vivian and Phil.

I always remember people saying he was kicked out of Dio for being gay. Then they said he went and started a reggae band? LOL... Not sure if ANY of that was true, but I remember people saying it. Probably just a local small town rumor.

Never heard this one and naturally it's not something I would ask Vivian (not my place). Viv is a hell of a nice great guy and an outstanding player. Watching and talking with Phil on the side of the stage was also very remarkable. His is an incredible player IE: extremely accurate regardless of how fast or slow he is playing, great feel and 100% on the money. If you've never seen Def Leppard live it's a great show.

On a different note; If you can find a copy of it his first band from Ireland it's called Sweet Savage. It was extremely fast and heavy for that era (IE: faster & heavier than Dio).


Hope it helps
Trace

 

[voodooamps]

Yep! I saw that Whitesnake tour with Vandenburg and Viv. Supposedly, Vandenburg wrote all of the music for "Slip of the Tongue," but hurt his hand before the studio sessions started. Vai played everything on it, but Vandenberg and Vai both toured on that one. There are some YouTube vids of Vai and Vandenberg in Whitesnake.

I saw that tour as well, impressive playing all the way around!

As far as I know, Viv never played on any Whitesnake studio recordings.

I do not believe he did (going from momery), though I never asked him directly.

Really? I borrowed a live pro filmed concert of Def Leppard with Viv and Phil and Phil did probably 90% of the leads. Viv would throw stuff in every now and then (and he sounded better than Phil), but not much at all. That may be different now, though. I'm sure that video was from 10 years ago or something. But Steve Clark, the guy that Viv replaced, didn't do much lead either.

I've seen them about 3 times since we've been working with them and in my opinion I would have to say the leads were split evenly.


Have a great weekend!
Trace

 

[halford]

That has to be the best I've heard him sound, probably because he's not playing one of those clumsy looking Les Pauls Seriously, he does really sound good on that clip. I remember seeing that on VHS back in the 80's, looks like you can get it here on DVD:

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=970219

MUST GET!!!

Cheers for the heads up!!!!

 

[Wayniac]

That has to be the best I've heard him sound, probably because he's not playing one of those clumsy looking Les Pauls Seriously, he does really sound good on that clip. I remember seeing that on VHS back in the 80's, looks like you can get it here on DVD:

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=970219

MUST GET!!!

Cheers for the heads up!!!!

Just another heads up.. I have it, and it is Goldy on guitar, not Viv...
Anyone know of a proshot video of Dio with Vivian?

 

[SeaDog]

I always remember people saying he was kicked out of Dio for being gay. Then they said he went and started a reggae band? LOL... Not sure if ANY of that was true, but I remember people saying it. Probably just a local small town rumor.

Chris

OK - my best rock star story that may answer why Dio doesn't like Campbell:

I met and hung out with Vivian at a clinic that the store I worked at held in NJ right around the time he was getting the band with the singer from Foreigner (Lou Gramm), Shadow King going. I asked him about Dio and here is what he said...

He and the whole band were hired for something like $300.00 dollars a week under the guise that when Dio got his solo gig off the ground they would be taken care of (remember at that time Dio wasn't really a big deal). He said working with Dio was horrible since Dio wanted to control everything right down to how he strummed his guitar on the song Holy Diver. He was also kinda annoyed that Dio gave no writing credits to the band (see the original album - words and music Dio). He said that the band wrote all the music but got no publishing. So he said that after the second album and no raise, the band's playing gigs where Dio's making 100 grand a night on t-shirts and they musicians are scrapping by. All the guys were pissed and kinda elected him, since he was the youngest (and didn't have a family) to confront Dio on when they were going to get "taken care of". He said that Wendy Dio was the manager at the time and when he confronted Wendy and Ronny, Wendy fired him on the spot and basically asked the rest of the band if there were any more complaints. All the rest of the guys had families and just kept their mouths shut for fear of losing their job. He did acknowledge that Dio gave him a great break but felt that Wendy and Ronny were basically assholes to work for. I want to add I'm a big fan of Dio so I'm just repeating what he said.

On another note he spoke very highly of David Coverdale and said he made more money on one Whitesnake tour than his entire time in Dio. He said the tour was what you dream about being in a rock band and was loads of fun. He only left because he was more into bluesy rock than the hair metal thing. If you remember his solo bands were more mainstream.

Another funny thing was that when he flew, he had zero dollars, one pick and just an anderson guitar with him. The Randall rep was supposed to pick him up from the airport but was delayed, so me and my bass player picked him up. My dad actually had to buy us all pizza for dinner, since all of us were pennyless musicians. So here is my Dad hanging out with an famous Irish guitar player (one of my absolute heroe's) and he had no clue as to who he was, it was kinda funny to watch. All in all, he was really a cool guy and the blues rock he played at the clinic really showed me how great he was (he blew everyone away). He even let me play his anderson, which was awesome.

 

[mentoneman]

I always remember people saying he was kicked out of Dio for being gay. Then they said he went and started a reggae band? LOL... Not sure if ANY of that was true, but I remember people saying it. Probably just a local small town rumor.

Chris

I remember, he kinda had a personal war going on with Yngwie -or at least Guitar Player magazine tried to make one. I remember him saying something like "I don't give a flying f*** how fast Yngwie is". The magazine tried to perpetuate that into a fued. Not sure why he left DIO, but I think he was under pressure to constantly come up with music for the band. You have to remember in the 80's some of these bands would put out an album, tour for 8 months, and turn right around and record again. Nearly two albums per year sometimes.

that yngwie vs viv "war" was played up big time and came to a head when dio came to hawaii, and yngwie was the opener.

it was a hot topic on the rock radio station in hawaii at the time (summer of 86'), the week before the concert (i won a satin dio sacred heart tour jacket for a trivia question i answered correctly )

and by the time the concert hit, yngwie apparently heard all the hoopla and figured time to end this dog and pony show uno for all so, he decided to surgically disfigure campbell with his strat playing that night---yngwie played the best i've ever heard him play--tone as gigantic as godzilla having kong's baby, just pure vendetta shredding on every solo, and was sprinting back and forth on the stage just going bananas.

he played eruption with his teeth, feet, and this demonic pied piper was unstoppable that night...he did everything but spontaneously combust-the crowd went insane-i don't ever remember anyone whipping up a frenzy like that before or after in an arena of that size--it was like a crazy punk show in a small club times 100-- and when he was done he got like a 5 minute standing O, where was i you ask??moshed to the front row is where!! i was soaked with sweat and neck hurt from h-banging and in the ovation madness some hottie who was my headbanging compadre up front grabbed and kissed me in the heat of the moment-thanks yngwie! and he was just a little no name opener that most of hawaii had never heard of till then.

viv limped on stage after that wet puppy style, and went deer in the headlights most of the night.
PIZOWNERSHIZZY

oh and apparently that week vivian did a clinic at the local gtr shop and "hit" on one of our gtr buddies

s i z z l e chest......

 

[SeaDog]

I always remember people saying he was kicked out of Dio for being gay. Then they said he went and started a reggae band? LOL... Not sure if ANY of that was true, but I remember people saying it. Probably just a local small town rumor.

Chris

oh and apparently that week vivian did a clinic at the local gtr shop and "hit" on one of our gtr buddies

s i z z l e chest......

He didn't hit on me or any of my friends when we met him.... Maybe I wasn't hot enough for him....

 

[Snake Plissken]

That has to be the best I've heard him sound, probably because he's not playing one of those clumsy looking Les Pauls Seriously, he does really sound good on that clip. I remember seeing that on VHS back in the 80's, looks like you can get it here on DVD:

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=970219

MUST GET!!!

Cheers for the heads up!!!!

Just another heads up.. I have it, and it is Goldy on guitar, not Viv...
Anyone know of a proshot video of Dio with Vivian?

Look for the "We Rock" DVD, they have it at amazon.com. Two shows form '83 - '84 (Philly and Utrecht, Holland). They were available as boots for years, and officially released a couple of years ago.

 

[Fiesta Red]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8YohffE57k

Wow, Dio playing a BC Rich strat. Not many videos of that.

 

[MisterBulbous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8YohffE57k

Wow, Dio playing a BC Rich strat. Not many videos of that.

He had an endorsement deal for a while.

 

[halford]

That has to be the best I've heard him sound, probably because he's not playing one of those clumsy looking Les Pauls Seriously, he does really sound good on that clip. I remember seeing that on VHS back in the 80's, looks like you can get it here on DVD:

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=970219

MUST GET!!!

Cheers for the heads up!!!!

Holy Fuck. Just got this and this is one amazing DVD.

Scared Heart

I didnt know Craig Goldie ripped that much and fitted in so well after Viv

 

[DiezelDale]

Good stuff! Great tone and playing. Anyone know if this entire show is available on DVD?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhxLo7vOgek

Chris

I was at the 84' Holy Diver at Red Rocks Colorado, best damn DIO show ever!