def leppard tour in 1984

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How Def Leppard Learned Hard Lessons on the ‘Pyromania’ Tour

When Def Leppard completed their Pyromania World Tour on Feb. 7, 1984, there was no doubt they'd made it to the big time.

After 178 shows over almost exactly a year, they had moved from a support act playing medium-sized venues to a headline attraction selling tens of thousands tickets a night. However, it wasn't all smooth sailing.

The road trip had kicked off on Feb. 9, 1983, with two warm-up club shows in London and Dublin before commencing a full run of 177 performances that included a total of 115 in North America. The first 24 of those had been as opening act for Billy Squier, but as sales of their third album, Pyromania , took hold, and MTV A-listed their video for lead single “Photograph,” things changed rapidly.

The second-to-last show took place at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, with Eddie Money , Uriah Heep and rising stars  Motley Crue in support, and 55,000 fans in attendance. At that point, the band reported, Pyromania was selling 100,000 copies a day in the United States and kept off the No.1 spot by Michael Jackson’s Thriller .

“From a professional point of view, it was probably one of the best times of our lives,” bassist Rick Savage said later. “Looking back, and hearing old mixing-desk tapes, we were fucking atrocious most of the time! For some reason, though, it didn't really matter. That is when hype will work in your favor, because when you're hot, you're hot.”

Contributing to that heat was a 17-song set that usually included six tracks from their latest LP: "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” "Photograph,” “Foolin’,” "Rock of Ages,” "Billy's Got a Gun" and ”Stagefright.” Pyromania had marked a move away from their heavy metal beginnings and, with the help of producer John Robert “Mutt” Lange, their move toward a hard rock sound that blended pop with as many other influences as they could fit in.

Watch Def Leppard's 'Photograph' Video

It was also their first album with guitarist Phil Collen , who’d replaced Pete Willis partway through the recording. “Phil is more jazz-rock oriented than Pete ever was,” Savage reflected at the time. “He’s what we call a speed freak. Occasionally he tries to see how many notes he can put in a five-second solo. And with him being more jazz-rock-oriented, he does have a stronger background of chords and what have you. He and Steve [Clark] complement each other really well because they have contrasting styles.”

Collen recalled his debut appearance at the tour warm-up show at London’s Marquee Club, noting that the Jack Murphy Stadium concert had taken place less than a year later. “That was really exciting, to go from no one knowing who you are to getting mobbed and escorted out of a restaurant, stuff like that,” he said. “It’s never really been like that since then. So that was a very exciting, very strange period.”

“We were really good as a band by the time we finished the Pyromania  tour," he told UCR  in 2013. "So the whole thing, I don’t want to say it was like a blur, because I remember all of it, but it was probably the most exciting period of the whole career. ... I think the first time you make it and the first time you go platinum, double platinum and quadruple platinum, it’s unbelievable just how everything changes around you, even though you’re exactly the same.”

For singer  Joe Elliott , the tour featured the highest highs and lowest lows of his career up to that point. He later told Classic Rock that “Photograph” and the follow-up singles “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’” received so much airplay that he “turned the radio off ‘cause I got sick of hearing us every 20 minutes!” However, it also put Elliott through a couple of careful-what-you-wish-for moments.

Listen to Def Leppard Perform on the 'Pyromania' Tour

Joe Elliott Battled Voice Problems on the 'Pyromania' Tour

In June 1983, he began experiencing throat problems that forced the band to drop eight shows; all but one were rescheduled. He admitted to MTV  he was ordered into complete silence and had to communicate with a writing pad. “I ended up putting tape on my mouth, because I'm like that once I get going," he explained. "It's really difficult. I've still got this pad. I actually filled a full pad up. Everything I wanted to ask anybody I had to write down. It was terrible."

Asked if he was doing something wrong with his voice, he replied, “No – what it is, basically, it was four and a half months nonstop. An hour and a half a night. And it just needed a rest.” He added he was relieved that two nights in Detroit were going ahead because, with ticket sales of 28,000 both nights, they’d beaten a record previously set by Led Zeppelin .

In November 1983, Elliott was forced to deal with backlash over comments he made onstage two months earlier. Known among fans as “the El Paso incident,” it took place on Sept. 7 in Tucson while the singer encouraged the crowd to clap along during “Rock of Ages.” “Last night we played in El Paso, that place with all the greasy Mexicans, and they made a lot more noise than that!” he told them.

Word soon spread to the point that band manager Cliff Burnstein received news that “they're burning Def Leppard records and breaking them over the air in El Paso.” Until then, no one knew there was a problem – and only drummer Rick Allen had actually known about Elliott’s words. “I tried to crouch lower into my drum kit, looking over the tops of the drums, thinking, 'No you didn't say that. You couldn't have,’” he said in the band memoir Animal Instinct . “Fortunately, nobody in the audience seemed to notice it.”

Watch Def Leppard's 'Foolin'' Video

But the “greasy Mexicans” remark was reported in the press, and by November it was beginning to seriously impact the band’s image. “That comment, I swear, was aimed at five Hispanic kids who were spitting at us, throwing Jack Daniels and kung fu stars at the band," Elliott explained. "It was aimed at those five kids, not at anybody else in El Paso itself. I was slagging off those five bastards.”

He added that the phrase itself wasn’t intended to be so incendiary, and that it had come into his head “purely because I'm a Cheech & Chong fan, and they use it all the time.” The backlash prompted the cancellation of a proposed tour date in El Paso in 1988, and the band didn’t return there until 2000 (though they toured Mexico in 1993 without any problems).

But there was no doubt the Pyromania World Tour was a massive success. “When I watched Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops , I just wanted to be up on that same stage, covered in glitter and wearing women’s shoes,” Elliott said later. “I dreamed of being the singer in the biggest rock ’n’ roll band in the world. Pyromania made it happen.”

While more turmoil was in store for Def Leppard, unimaginable further success also waited, as producer Lang began thinking about their fourth album and suggested that, since every other rock band in the world was trying to make a “Pyromania 2,” they should instead look at chart rival Thriller for inspiration. A great deal of Hysteria was the result.

​​

The Best Song From Every Def Leppard Album

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff

Watch Phil Collen’s Exclusive Performance of ‘Hysteria’

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Def Leppard on the ‘Melodic Mayhem’ of ‘Pyromania’ & Why Taylor Swift Is ‘Bigger Than the Beatles and the Stones Combined’

The classic album's 40th anniversary edition is out now.

By Joe Lynch

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Def Leppard ’s first two albums vaulted five boys from working-class Sheffield, England to the vanguard of the new wave of British heavy metal. On 1983’s Pyromania , the quintet set their sights even higher. “There’s no point in trying to appeal to half the population,” bassist Rick Savage tells Billboard . “Why not appeal to 100% of the population?”

Thirty Years Later, Pete Townshend on Why ‘The Who’s Tommy’ Is Still Capturing Rock n’ Roll’s…

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The album’s blockbuster success — which also eventually included a diamond RIAA certification for over 10 million units shipped — paved the way for the pop-metal crossover of bands like Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses and Poison, and set Def Lep up for a long, fruitful career. In 2022, the still-active band became only the third group to notch a top 10 album on the Billboard 200 in every decade since the ‘80s.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary edition of Pyromania (out April 26), Savage and frontman Joe Elliott hopped on a Zoom call with Billboard to pull back the curtain on the making of the classic — as well as share thoughts on a former CMT Crossroads collaborator who has since become the biggest pop star in the world.

Pyromania had the same producer, Mutt Lange, as the album that came out before it, High ‘n’ Dry . Even so, that one feels a bit rawer compared to Pyromania . Was it a conscious decision to give the album a cleaner production?

Joe Elliott: Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. The obvious observations for those two records is that High ‘n’ Dry sounds like a band playing live and Pyromania sounds like a band in the studio — à la Pink Floyd, à la the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper — that sat down to craft some songs. They’re not just, “Okay, hit the record button and play it live.” That’s what High ‘n’ Dry sounds like — even though it actually wasn’t, because we did that in bits and bobs. But it has that impression.

Technology was starting to change. Recording studios in 1981 were pretty much the same as they were in 1979. Recording studios in 1982, ’83, there’s new bits of equipment coming in on a daily basis that can do things: synthesizers, drum machines. Drum machines were a big part of the music industry, with The Human League and New Order. We were using this kind of stuff, but most rock bands weren’t. And the great thing about having Mutt on your side is he’d be very enthusiastic about saying, “Well, why not? Why can’t a rock band…” and then fill in whatever phrase you want. It would be like [why can’t a rock band] “use that technology that these arty pop bands are using within the field of rock and see where it gets you”? We didn’t want to make High ‘n’ Dry 2 .

I was looking through the Billboard archives, and an article from 1984 postulated that a lot of Def Leppard’s appeal was connected to youth. Other metal acts at the time – Ozzy, Motörhead, whatever – were in their thirties, but you guys were a bit younger and maybe more attractive to girls. Is that something you were aware of back in the day?

We want to appeal to as many people as we can. There’s no point in trying to appeal to half the population — why not appeal to 100% of the population? All of a sudden, from Pyromania onwards, so many women and girls came to our shows. And it’s just testament to the actual songs, because they’re the things that get people first interested, and then everything else follows from that.

Elliott : We are a weird band in that respect, because we’ve always wanted to be honest with people. When you are five kids from Sheffield and you want to get up on stage and play rock music, there’s an oomph to it. It’s got a feeling that I don’t think — with the greatest respect to, say, the Human League, when we opened for them one night in their embryonic stage, they’re behind plexiglass sheets with keyboards. It doesn’t really have that Townshend windmill factor to it. It’s always fun to play the rock stuff, you know, “Highway to Hell” or “Tie Your Mother Down.”

But honestly, when we were in the factory rehearsing before we even played our first gig, we’d be talking about music way different than what we were playing. Me and Sav instantly bonded over the fact that we loved Kate Bush. Or the first two Peter Gabriel albums, which we were listening to way more than Motörhead. I don’t think Motörhead ever sat up a rehearsal room and had a discussion about “Wuthering Heights,” whereas we would. We always wanted it to be a glam rock, power guitar thing: Bowie, Slade, Sweet, Queen. That’s the fun element.

Savage : I don’t think so. It kind of happened in reverse. We weren’t really trying to market anything or become influenced by the latest media thing. We just got picked up from it, and we were fortunate in that respect. Before Pyromania was released, we knew that videos were coming to the fore. MTV was getting more and more popular, so it was just an obvious thing to do. We made two videos, one for “Photograph” and one for “Rock of Ages.” That was done in December of ’82, the album didn’t come out till early ‘83.

Elliott : Yeah, there’s no doubt that when we were making the album, the last thing on our mind was worrying about, “Oh, we got to make videos.” The one that really started to get a bit of traction was “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak.” In London, we’d start receiving the odd phone call from management in New York saying, “Oh, yeah, they played ‘Bringin’ on the Heartbreak’ 40 times on MTV last week.” “Okay, interesting.” Then you three weeks later you get another message saying that High ‘n’ Dry started selling again. Three weeks later, you get another message: “Bloody hell, it’s selling 50,000 a week.” By the end of the year, we’re getting this message that it’s gone gold, so we know that this is not going gold because the radio — it’s gone gold because of MTV. We were just getting little messages as we’re [making] the [ Pyromania ] album. It’s like a mosquito in your ear, like, “Yeah, okay, fine.”

As you were saying about youth, because we were all 21, 22 years old, when somebody says, “You got to spend a day in Battersea Power Station shooting videos,” you go, “Great.” We learned after the fact that a lot of seasoned bands from the ‘70s were reluctant to do them, which is why a lot of videos by bands from the ‘70s that were presented in the ‘80s were crap. I think the only band that really grasped the nettle when they came back with a resurgence was Aerosmith. Really, they did a brilliant job with videos. But lots of other bands were like, “I don’t see why we’re having to do this.” We were the next generation, and started to realize, “This is almost as important as making the record.”

Speaking of TV and “Photograph,” fast forward about 25 years. You’re on CMT Crossroads with a very young Taylor Swift singing that song. Did you ever think, “This person is going to become the biggest pop star in the world?”

Savage : She was pretty big then, to be honest. It was unbelievable that somebody had such youth, but almost like an old head on young shoulders when she came to songwriting. It was actually quite eye-opening. It was great fun; it was a bit of a laugh. She’s quite popular now, isn’t she? But trust me, she was pretty popular then as well. I mean, not to the level she’s at now, obviously — but within the country scene she was as big as they came. It was a really great experience working with her and the band. She had a great band back then as well.

What impressed me the most was that when we got to the table of like, which songs we’re going to do, she wanted to do a lot of [ Songs From the ] Sparkle Lounge . I’m thinking, “She’s heard that song?” And then “Two Steps Behind” got pulled out, which wasn’t going to be suggested, but she says, “I want to do that one.”

It’s all very logical and all very organic. It really was. I got to sing “Love Story,” bits from the perspective of a guy. She was really enthusiastic and obviously a big fan. And we became fans of her. I think we’d all be lying if we said we knew she was going to become as big as she has because she’s actually become bigger than anything that’s ever been before. She’s probably bigger than The Beatles and The Stones combined, for her generation of fans. I’ll probably get lynched by some 75-year-old reading this, but it’s all relative.

Today it’s all about the streaming numbers and all that kind of stuff. There’s been a lot of massively successful bands, but she’s taken success to a level that is unheard of. It’s absolutely mad. It’s success beyond anything that anybody could have ever dreamed of, probably her herself. I’ve seen the Eras film and it’s astonishing what she’s done. I hope she works with us again one day. [ Laughs. ]

I’ve read that “Rock of Ages” has a back-masked message of “F—k the Russians” on it. I wanted to ask if that was true, and if so, what inspired that.

Savage : [ Laughs. ]

Savage : The song is so sparse and open. We needed cues as guitar players as to when we’re going to come in because we didn’t have a vocal at the time. It was very easy to get lost in, because we’re just playing it to a drum machine. A lot of the stuff was there as cues to when the next part was coming up, of which “ gunter gleiben glauchen globen ” was one of them. It was much like saying, “1-2-3-4, here comes the bridge” sort of thing. So yeah, there was a load of stuff going down on that particular song, just to keep us interested.

Elliott : Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, this was born out of cabin fever, because this was the first time that we’d been in a studio doing 22-hour days, six days, maybe seven days a week and we’re probably into month six or seven so you start to go a bit ’round the bend. You start doing crazy stuff. People always mock rock bands for being silly, but I’ve read so many articles about what you might call sophisticated artists doing stuff just as stupid because they had cabin fever. The Beatles, Clapton, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, just doing goofy s–t in the studio because it relieves the tension, relieves the boredom.

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Def Leppard: Their Rousing, Rocking, Remarkable Journey

Def Leppard performed in Dortmund, Germany during the Pyromania tour in 1983.

Fryderyk Gabowicz/Picture Alliance/Getty

Written By: Alan Light

The following is from LIFE’s new special issue on Def Leppard, available at newsstands and online .

It was a mighty big stage for such a risky experiment. On August 16, 1986, the seventh annual Monsters of Rock festival took place in Castle Donnington, England, in front of 80,000 fans.  Def Leppard had become one of the biggest rock bands in the world with their breakthrough 1983 album Pyromania , which sold more than 6 million copies, though this popularity hadn’t fully swept their native U.K., where the record only peaked at No. 18 on the charts. At Monsters of Rock the band was slated in the middle of a bill of heavy-metal all-stars, coming on stage after Motörhead and just before the Scorpions and the headliner, Ozzy Osbourne.

Part of the reason for this placement may also have been concerns around Def Leppard’s lineup. On New Year’s Eve 1984, while the group was on a holiday break from recording, drummer Rick Allen had crashed his car on a country road, severing his left arm. But Allen trained himself to play a specially designed drum kit by using his legs to take on some of the parts usually handled by the arms.

Before Donington, the band did a quick six-date warm-up tour in Ireland. The plan was for Allen to play alongside another drummer, but after the additional player showed up late for one of the gigs, Allen handled the final two dates by himself. Now, less than 20 months after his accident, he was at Monsters of Rock before a full—extra full, in fact—audience. The eyes of the music world were on Def Leppard, and fans and the press were skeptical that this unprecedented comeback was viable. To make things all the more challenging, it was pouring rain.

“It’s not like I could consult with a book called One-Armed Drummers, ” Allen has said, noting that his physical transformation inevitably changed his style. “Everything I did I had to figure out for myself.”

Over an 11-song set, the Castle Donington performance proved to be a triumph. “Stagefright” was the (perhaps inevitable) opener, with its first line “I said, welcome to my show!” When the band played their ferocious cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travelin’ Band” as an encore, singer Joe Elliott introduced “Mr. Ricky Allen on the drums,” and the soggy crowd went crazy.

The next chapter of Def Leppard’s remarkable, unlikely, and highly uplifting career had begun—and though this wouldn’t be the last time the band stared down tragedy, they would ultimately emerge not only intact but bigger than ever. Their next album, 1987’s Hysteria, would surpass the heights reached by Pyromania and become one of the best-selling albums of all time. More than 40 years after their formation, Elliott, Allen, bassist Rick Savage, and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell are Rock & Roll Hall of Famers, still topping the charts and playing to sold-out stadiums.

“The guy lost his arm in a car accident and then decided he was going to learn how to play drums with his foot,” says singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson, who released an EP of Def Leppard covers in 2018. “That is, in and of itself, a story that should carry them for the rest of their life in terms of showing their resilience and their drive and power and love of playing music together.”

Looking back on Allen’s accident decades later, Elliott described how the rest of Def Leppard never wavered in their support for their bandmate and the greater significance of the challenging crossroads in the group’s history. “We said, ‘Okay, he’s in this band until he says he isn’t.’ We’re not going to fire him because of an accident. . . . It showed the humanity within the band, the true friendship, because we’d been through some trauma before then, but this was major league.

“That was the beginning of us realizing that it’s not just a band,” Elliott added. “It’s a band of brothers.”

Here are a selection of photos from LIFE’s new special issue on Def Leppard :

Cover photography by Ross Halfin; Photo colorization by Jordan J. Lloyd/Unseen Histories

Lead songwriter and guitarist Steve Clark, bassist Rick Savage, lead singer Joe Elliott and drummer Rick Allen of Def Leppard performed at The Fabulous Fox Theater on Sept. 4, 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. Tom Hill/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Def Leppard in 1983, right before the success of their Pyromania album would elevate the band into the stratosphere. Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Phil Collen, then a recent addition to the band, showed his chops in a performance at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., 1983. Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty

During their Hysteria tour Def Leppard performed in San Remo, Italy in 1988. Duncan Raban/Popperfoto

Taylor Swift took to the stage with Def Leppard in 2008 for a concert that aired on CMT. Rick Diamond/WireImage/Getty

Def Lepppard’s Joe Elliott and Gene Simmons of Kiss shared a moment during their joint tour in 2014 after completing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in Noblesville, Indiana. Michael Hickey/Getty

Def Leppard celebrated their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a performance with Brian May of Queen (center) during ceremonies at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn in 2019. Mike Coppola/WireImage/Getty

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GiGinJapan Artwork of Japanese CDs (mostly)

Def leppard / tokyo 1984 final night / 2cd.

in 1980s , Def Leppard , Zodiac 2018/02/07 670 Views

Def Leppard / Tokyo 1984 Final Night / 2CD / Zodiac

Translated Text: Live at Nakano Sunplaza, Tokyo, Japan 26th January 1984

Click Image To Enlarge

Following the great success of “PYROMANIA”, I finally realized DEF LEPPARD ‘s first visit to Japan. The first full recorded album that will be the highest in history is released. This work is included in this work “January 26, 1984: Nakano Sansuraza” performance. This week, we also released a live album “OSAKA 1984 (Zodiac 287)” which also recorded the first visit to Japan. First of all, let’s check the position of both works with the first visit to Japan.

· January 24: Shibuya Public Hall · January 25: Osaka Health Pension Center “OSAKA 1984” · January 26: Nakano Sanguraza 【this work】

All three performances above. Although it came three days in a row and back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka, this program’s Nakano Sansurraza performance is the last day. This show has been archived as a masterpiece such as “ROCK TILL WE DROP (Shades 081)” and “FIRE BRIGADE (Shades 241)”, but this work is a completely different recording. It is a superb audience recording of permanent preservation that finally appeared, surpassing the two works lightly. Actually, the sound of this work is amazing. It is a work of the same name recordingist as “OSAKA 1984” released at the same time, and it is converted into a CD directly from the original cassette. It is a wonderful inscription that boasts ultimate ultimate freshness. In addition to its freshness, the recording itself is quite amazing. As a fact, enthusiasm must also be a vivid audience recording, but direct feeling that almost does not feel the reverberation is terrible, very slight acoustics are transparent to crystal clear, and details of the performance and singing voice can not be fogged at all. It is more vivid than the two Nakano Sampler 2 works so far than “OSAKA 1984”. On the other hand, actually the breath of the audience is somewhat inhaled more than “OSAKA 1984”, but that is also the real air coming to Japan for the first time. Is this work which synchronizes to “OSAKA 1984” which can concentrate on the performance, or “super clear sound” in “1984”? This depends on your preference, but in any case, the sound of this work is sure to be “the first peak of your visit to Japan”. In addition to such sound, this work is the first complete recording. The first live album to date has something cut in tape change etc. In this new excavation master also “Rock Of Ages” had a few seconds cut, supplemented by “ROCK TILL WE DROP” there. It was the first live album to lack all songs and pears & seamlessly. However, no matter how good the sound is, there is no crack, it alone can not affirm “the best masterpiece”. This work is the highest masterpiece which is contained in the quality by its quality. The set is the same as Osaka, but the position of the show is important. As mentioned above, this work was the last day in Japan, but the schedule is “Tokyo → Osaka → Tokyo”. I came back to Tokyo which was a great success at once, and I have no concern from the beginning of the show. I do not feel it gradually, but it is full of real feeling and confidence that I have had a huge success in Asia for the first time since the performance. In addition, the condition of the band is also great. In order to understand this, let’s introduce the whole world tour here as well.

【1983】 · February 9 – March 15: Europe # 1 (25 performances) · March 18 – September 20: North America (115 performances) · October 7 – December 18: Europe # 2 (29 shows) 【1984】 · January 24 – 26: Japan (3 shows) ← ★ Coco ★ · January 29 – February 7: Australia / Thailand (4 shows)

This is the whole of “PYROMANIA WORLD TOUR 1983-1984”. In this way, Europe / North America which became the main part in 1983 has finished turning, Japanese performance and Australia was a special editing position. Although I am not tired because I have been absent-mindedly for more than a month’s holiday, I need a place to regain a can restart. In general it is said to be 5-6 performances, but it is quick to get back to young bands only. This work is resuming 3 performances eyes, it has been brilliantly opened full-time for the first time. It is just like a specimen of performance or performance. In addition to sound quality and length, “top masterpiece” that is top of the show. For the first time in Japan … No, it is a masterpiece live album rarely seen in all history of DEF LEPPARD ‘s visit to Japan. Press 2CD to leave that glow forever. Please, please enjoy it thoroughly. Google Translate for Business:Translator ToolkitWebsite Translator

『PYROMANIA』の大成功を受け、遂に実現したDEF LEPPARDの初来日。その最高峰となる史上初の完全収録アルバムが登場です。 本作に本作に収められているのは「1984年１月26日：中野サンプラザ」公演。今週は、同じく初来日を記録したライヴアルバム『OSAKA 1984（Zodiac 287）』も同時リリース。まずは、初来日スケジュールで両作のポジションを確認しましょう。

・１月24日：渋谷公会堂 ・１月25日：大阪厚生年金会館『OSAKA 1984』 ・１月26日：中野サンプラザ　【本作】

以上、全３公演。東京・大阪を行き来しながらの３日連続ライヴとなったわけですが、本作の中野サンプラザ公演はその最終日にあたります。このショウはこれまでも『ROCK TILL WE DROP（Shades 081）』『FIRE BRIGADE（Shades 241）』といった傑作でアーカイヴしてきましたが、本作はまったくの別録音。その２作を軽ーく凌駕する、遂に登場した永久保存の極上オーディエンス録音なのです。 実際、本作のサウンドは驚異的。同時リリースの『OSAKA 1984』と同じ名録音家の作品で、オリジナル・カセットからダイレクトにCD化。まさしく究極的な鮮度を誇る素晴らしい銘品なのです。その瑞々しさに加え、録音自体もすこぶる素晴らしい。事実としては熱狂も生々しいオーディエンス録音には違いないものの、会場反響をほとんど感じないダイレクト感は凄まじく、極わずかな音響もクリスタル・クリアに透き通っており、演奏・歌声のディテールをまったく曇らせない。これまでの中野サンプラザ２作はもとより、『OSAKA 1984』よりも更に鮮やかなのです。その反面、実のところ『OSAKA 1984』よりオーディエンスの息吹もやや多めに吸い込んでいるのですが、それが初来日のリアルな空気感でもある。演奏に集中できる『OSAKA 1984』か、超クリア・サウンドで“1984年”にシンクロする本作か。これは好みにもよるところですが、いずれにせよ、本作のサウンドこそが“初来日の最高峰”には違いないのです。 そんなサウンドに加え、本作は初の完全収録。これまでの初来日ライヴアルバムはテープチェンジ等でどこかしらにカットがあるもの。今回の新発掘マスターも「Rock Of Ages」に数秒のカットがあったのですが、そこを『ROCK TILL WE DROP』で補完。全曲を欠けナシ＆シームレスに味わえる初めてのライヴアルバムになったのです。 しかし、いかに音が良く、欠けがなくてもそれだけでは「最高傑作」を断言できない。本作は、そのクオリティで封じ込まれたショウそのものも最高傑作なのです。セットは大阪と変わらないのですが、重要なのはショウのポジション。上記したように本作は日本最終日となったわけですが、日程は「東京→大阪→東京」。一度は盛況を収めた東京に戻ってきたわけで、ショウの始めから不安なし。徐々に実感していくのではなく、開演からもう初めてのアジアで大成功を収めた実感と自信が充ち満ちているのです。さらに、バンドのコンディションも絶好調。これをご理解いただくため、ここでワールドツアー全景もご紹介しておきましょう。

【1983年】 ・２月９日-３月15日：欧州#1（25公演） ・３月18日-９月20日：北米（115公演） ・10月７日-12月18日：欧州#2（29公演） 【1984年】 ・１月24日-26日：日本（３公演）←★ココ★ ・１月29日-２月７日：豪州/タイ（４公演）

これが“PYROMANIA WORLD TOUR 1983-1984”の全容。このように、1983年中に本編となるヨーロッパ／北米は回り終えており、日本公演とオーストラリアは特別編的なポジションでした。年末年始を１ヶ月以上たっぷりと休んだために疲れナシなのですが、ツアー再始動のカンを取り戻すに場数が必要。一般的には５-６公演とも言われますが、若いバンドだけに取り戻しも早い。本作は再開３公演目で、凄まじい全開・全力ぶりをブチかましている。まさに熱演・名演の見本のようなショウなのです。 サウンドクオリティ・長さに加え、ショウまで頂点的な「最高傑作」。初来日の……いえ、DEF LEPPARDの来日全史でも希に見る大傑作ライヴアルバムです。その輝きを永久に残すプレス２CD。どうぞ、ぞんぶんにお楽しみください。

Disc 1 (39:45) 1. Intro. 2. Rock Rock (Till You Drop) 3. Rock Brigade 4. High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night) 5. Another Hit And Run 6. Billy’s Got A Gun 7. Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes) 8. Foolin’ 9. Photograph

Disc 2 (42:25) 1. Rock Of Ages 2. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak 3. Switch 625 4. Phil Collen Guitar Solo 5. Let It Go 6. Steve Clark Guitar Solo 7. Wasted 8. Stagefright 9. Travelin’ Band/Rock And Roll

Joe Elliott – Lead Vocal Phil Collen – Guitar Steve Clark – Guitar Rick Savage – Bass Rick Allen – Drums

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Upcoming Tour Dates

JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's 'Crossroads' Collaboration With TAYLOR SWIFT: It Still 'Looks' And 'Sounds Great'

Sixteen years ago, DEF LEPPARD teamed up with a teenage Taylor Swift for an episode of CMT 's "Crossroads" . At the time, Taylor was a country music superstar whose songs were just starting to become pop hits. In a new interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK 's "Rock City" , DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott reminisced about working with the then-18-year-old star. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET ): "It's a strange thing. My kids, who are 14, 7 and 4, have never seen me with Taylor Swift . And I've told them. They didn't believe me. [ Laughs ] Because my kids are Swifties. And they didn't believe that daddy had sung with Taylor Swift . So I had to pull the DVD out and put it on. And they were just like this. [ Opens his mouth wide ]

"I hadn't seen it since 2009 or whatever — [it had been] 15 years since I saw it — and I watched the whole performance, and it was way better than I remembered it being," he admitted. "I didn't think it was bad [at the time], but sometimes things don't age well. This looks great. She looks amazing, she sounds great, the band was on fire, and we played together with her band. So a lot of interesting arrangements came out of that, different textures. It was great to do it differently. But, yeah, we performed [ 'Photograph' ] — in fact, it was the opening track of the show. And it was good fun doing that show. I really enjoyed it, 'cause she got to sing some of ours and I got to sing some of hers. And it was a really interesting week we had together. It was about four days of rehearsals, and then we shot the show twice. They picked the best bits from the two nights.

"Who knew how big she was gonna be?" Elliott continued. "She was popular then, but now she's in a different stratosphere to what she's ever been in before, or most other artists have ever been in. So, we can always look back on that and go, 'Hey, DEF LEPPARD , little old DEF LEPPARD , once got to play with Taylor Swift .'"

Joe previously discussed DEF LEPPARD 's collaboration with Swift in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Asked what signs he saw that this young woman was going to basically conquer the world, Elliott said: "Well, she was already pretty big, so the conquer the world was something that was either gonna happen or wasn't. In fairness, she really did go out, full bore, and conquer the world. Good luck to her for doing that, you know?

"The whole thing came together because somebody walked into our dressing room with a laptop… He goes, 'It's Taylor Swift , she's doing this interview, and she said there was only band that she would ever do a 'Crossroads' with, and it was DEF LEPPARD .' We went, 'Wow, okay, get in touch with her, see what she thinks.' Lo and behold, couple of months go by and, all of a sudden, we're doing this show.

"We've always been that poke-noses-out-of-joint kind of band. I loved the idea of something that's gonna either piss people off or they go, good for you for doing something different. If you're gonna do collaborations, I don't see the point in us doing a song with BON JOVI . Do you know what I mean? It's like, I'd prefer the idea of Jon doing a song with, like, Tom Waits . Us doing something with Loudon Wainwright III or Leonard Cohen . Somebody completely off the wall. Or Elvis Costello and MOTÖRHEAD . Can you imagine what that would sound like?"

Asked how it all worked, Joe said:"Getting hooked in with Taylor was great. She was 17 years old. We were more than willing to do this. We got a new record just out. It was a bit of fun. It was a four-day project. It was two days of rehearsals. It was two shows and everybody did their homework. We turned up knowing all the chords, knowing all the lyrics. There weren't really any difficulties. There were a couple of moments where we sat down, me and Taylor sat down, and she says, 'I can't sing that line,' 'cause it was a bit too risqué, in [ 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' ]. So we'd swap things around. And the fact that I was actually singing from the male point of view in some of her stuff, like in 'Love Story' . As you say, I'm not going to sing something and half-ass it. I'm going to give it my all. Because it doesn't matter. It's a one off project and you've got to sell yourself in the right light. It makes no difference to me whether it's a RAMONES song or a Taylor Swift . I'm gonna do it the best I can."

DEF LEPPARD and JOURNEY will join forces for a summer 2024 North American tour. The 23-date trek will begin on July 6 in St. Louis, Missouri and hit cities including Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and more before wrapping in Denver on September 8. Openers include STEVE MILLER BAND , HEART and CHEAP TRICK , which will vary by city.

DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE have completed several legs of "The World Tour" , which included U.S. dates with Alice Cooper .

DEF LEPPARD 's latest album of all-new material, "Diamond Star Halos" , sold 34,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release in May 2022 to land at position No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the band's eighth top 10 LP.

Of "Diamond Star Halos" ' 34,000 units earned for the week, album sales comprised 32,000, SEA units comprised 2,000 (equaling 2.7 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprised less than 500 units.

DEF LEPPARD 's previous Top 10 albums included "Pyromania" (which peaked at No. 2 in 1983), "Hysteria" (No. 1 for six weeks in 1988), "Adrenalize" (No. 1 for five weeks in 1992), "Retro Active" (No. 9; 1983), "Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection" (No. 10; 2005), "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge" (No. 5; 2008) and "Def Leppard" (No. 10; 2015).

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Raven Drum Foundation hosting first responders…

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Raven drum foundation hosting first responders benefit concert at kuumbwa jazz.

SANTA CRUZ — The effects of music therapy are well-documented. Studies have shown that music can make a person more relaxed, reduce pain and decrease stress.

All of that can be particularly beneficial for combat veterans and first responders who frequently experienced stressful situations in their lines of work that never leave their minds, resulting in trauma. That is why the husband and wife team of Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen and healing artist Lauren Monroe founded the nonprofit Raven Drum Foundation in 2001 to give veterans, first responders and other vulnerable groups a chance to heal through music and arts programs, storytelling, advocacy and more.

Recently, the Raven Drum Foundation has expanded into hosting benefit concerts with proceeds going toward first responders and other groups it serves. One such concert will be taking place at Kuumbwa Jazz May 4 with local and national talents.

Monroe said she and Allen saw the foundation as a way to pair the benefits of playing rhythms with mindfulness and alternative healing activities.

“We both came to this awareness by our own personal journeys,” she said. “We came together, and we saw that this model of healing really works with so many people. It brings communities together, it helps people learn more tools on how to help themselves with their mental health and with anxiety and learning more about their body and how the body holds trauma.”

It is an experience Allen knows about firsthand. On New Year’s Eve 1984, as Def Leppard were riding high off the success of their third album “Pyromania” and hit singles like “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages,” Allen was in a car accident in the English countryside near Sheffield that severed his left arm. He said he felt defeated afterward.

“At first, I didn’t really want to be here anymore when I came around in the hospital and I realized what had happened to me,” he said. “I just didn’t want to see anybody other than my family.”

What changed for Allen was the encouragement he received from Def Leppard fans throughout the world who sent him letters of support as well as his producer Robert “Mutt” Lange who visited him in the hospital.

“He really emphasized what I could do as opposed to what I couldn’t do,” said Allen. “It got me thinking, and I think that’s when I discovered the power of the human spirit.”

Allen’s friend Pete Harley created a modified drum kit with electronic pedals for his left foot that allowed him to play the pieces he used to play with his left arm.

“I went from a really defeated place to a really empowered place where I could see a way forward, and I could see how I could play drums again,” he said. “That was really the beginning of my journey, and that journey continues.”

Def Leppard resumed performing with Allen on drums in 1986 and continued to tour, put out multi-platinum albums and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Allen has also reached out to people in need and was twice honored with the Humanitarian Award by Best Buddies California.

Monroe was trained in transcendental meditation when she was a child and became interested in healing arts.

“I knew spiritual approaches worked and also energetic approaches worked,” she said. “I was on a mission to find out the science of how we heal outside of going to the doctor.”

Monroe became involved in massage therapy, integrated healing and energy medicine practices like shiatsu, Emotional Freedom Techniques and shock core balancing before moving on to energy psychology and learning about how the subconscious mind works in relation to physical and emotional health.

“I also look at somatic experiencing in my work, how people really feel into their bodies’ experience because oftentimes in trauma, we want to check out of the body,” she said. “We want to just manage our pain and our memories in a way so we can just move forward, but the body has memory, and through my years of learning, I’ve really uncovered ways I can help people to access that.”

The Raven Drum Foundation has partnered with and funded veteran support organizations such as Operation Surf, GI Josie,  the Veterans Yoga Program, the Vanderpump Dog Foundation and Native American Veteran Association to support their programs and also has programs of its own. Its primary program is the healing drum circle where people play drums in a group to release emotions and trauma.

“What we focus on in the drum circles is giving people tools on how to be mindful, how to manage your thoughts so your thoughts can help your body thrive, how to move through difficult situations where you felt stuck, where you have trauma,” said Monroe.

At the start of the program, Monroe said people check in with program coordinators to talk about how they are doing physically. By the end, they have seen reductions in physical pain and stress, and people who feel isolated at the start of the program are more open by the end.

“When it comes to veterans and first responders who don’t often share what’s going on with their trauma, they start off guarded and then by the end, everyone is really open and talking,” she said.

Monroe said it also makes people feel more empathetic toward others, and Allen said people completely transform by the end.

“Every circle that we do, we find that people walk in as strangers, and then people leave and it’s like there’s this sense of community,” he said. “It brings people closer together, it really opens people up.”

In recent years, the foundation has been hosting more benefit concerts for first responders such as a March 14 concert at The Cutting Room in New York City. This show featured a star-studded lineup of drummers such as Peter Criss from Kiss, Simon Kirke from Bad Company, Liberty DeVitto of Billy Joel’s touring and recording band, former David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer, members of the Saturday Night Live Band and more, which culminated in an all-star performance of Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour.”

For this show, Monroe said the foundation partnered with Friends of Firefighters, a New York-based nonprofit that provides counseling and support to firefighters still dealing with trauma from incidents they responded to.

“Their primary clients are firefighters who are still suffering greatly from the psychological as well as physical effects of 9/11,” she said. “It’s great to have a partner like them.”

The foundation has two regional shows coming up. The first is an invitation-only drum circle concert at the Chateau Diana in Healdsburg April 27 with Allen, Timbuk 3 drummer Wally Ingram, Styx drummer Todd Sucherman and Alvin Taylor who has drummed for the likes of Little Richard, Eric Burdon, George Harrison, Elton John, Billy Preston, Sly & the Family Stone and more. Proceeds from this show will go toward the victims and first responders who responded to the Tubbs Fire in 2017.

The second show is at Kuumbwa Jazz May 4 with proceeds benefiting Northern California first responders experiencing trauma. The lineup includes local talent such as guitarist Dylan Rose, bassist Steve Uccello, drummer Javier Torres, world music collective Mokili Wa and jazz and gospel vocalist Tammi Brown, who was honored with a benefit concert at Kuumbwa in December after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Brown has performed in Monroe’s band who played at that concert with Allen on drums.

“After we did that event, we said ‘Let’s just continue at Kuumbwa because there’s such a great community here,'” said Monroe.

The event will also feature Dr. Bruce Lipton, a stem cell biologist and author of “The Biology of Belief.”

“We are creating these concerts to educate people on the power that they have over their health and well-being and also take them into a musical experience of experiencing community and wholeness,” said Monroe.

Allen said he hopes audiences will walk away with a sense of well-being.

“People seem to be isolating a lot, and I think it’s really taken a toll,” he said. “To get people to come out and do things together like this is really a blessing.”

The concert is 7 p.m. May 4 at Kuumbwa Jazz, 320 Cedar St. Doors open at 6. Tickets are $50 in advance. For more information, go to KuumbwaJazz.org . For more information on the Raven Drum Foundation, go to RavenDrumFoundation.org .

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Def Leppard Setlist at Osaka Kousei Nenkin Kaikan, Osaka, Japan

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• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) Play Video
• Rock Brigade Play Video
• High & Dry (Saturday Night) Play Video
• Another Hit and Run ( extended ) Play Video
• Billy's Got a Gun Play Video
• Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes) Play Video
• Foolin' Play Video
• Photograph Play Video
• Rock of Ages ( extended ) Play Video
• Bringin' On the Heartbreak Play Video
• Switch 625 Play Video
• Let It Go Play Video
• Wasted Play Video
• Stagefright Play Video
• Travelin' Band ( Creedence Clearwater Revival  cover) Play Video

Edits and Comments

6 activities (last edit by ExecutiveChimp , 24 Aug 2022, 14:42 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Another Hit and Run
• Bringin' On the Heartbreak
• High & Dry (Saturday Night)
• Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)
• Billy's Got a Gun
• Foolin'
• Rock of Ages
• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
• Stagefright
• Rock Brigade
• Travelin' Band by Creedence Clearwater Revival

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Def leppard gig timeline.

• Dec 18 1983 Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 Dortmund, Germany Add time Add time
• Jan 24 1984 Shibuya Koukaidou Tokyo, Japan Add time Add time
• Jan 25 1984 Osaka Kousei Nenkin Kaikan This Setlist Osaka, Japan Add time Add time
• Jan 26 1984 Nakano Sunplaza Tokyo, Japan Add time Add time
• Jan 29 1984 Narara 1984 Somersby, Australia Add time Add time

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