Page 39 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

became the opening track on 1983’s Pyromania. “In
The album was completed in three weeks, at a
cost of £16,000 – minimal even by the standards of
that time. Def Leppard had come a long way in the
thirteen months since they made the E.P. “We were
naïve kids who believed in what we were doing,” Joe
Elliott says, “but at the same time we couldn’t
believe it was actually happening.”
n the first two months of 1980, ahead of the
album’s release, the band gigged in clubs
Icovering the length and breadth of the British
mainland. “It was absolutely the best time,” Rick
Savage says. “We started the show with all this red
smoke billowing out over the stage, and it was
bloody horrible. It would literally turn your
eyebrows orange. But we were having so much fun,
touring in a Transit van and believing that you’re
invincible.”
Leppard’s club tour finished on February 29 at
Newcastle Mayfair. Two weeks later, on March 14,
On Through The Night was released. The album shot
to No.15 on the UK chart. “Having a Top 20 record
was mind blowing,” Joe says. And with it, the band
quickly moved up a level. Beginning on April 5, a
21-date UK tour saw Leppard headlining in theatres
where, just a few months earlier, they had opened
for Hagar and AC/DC.
those new songs,” Joe says, “you could really hear
where our music was heading.”
It was apt that On Through The Night had cover art
depicting a giant guitar on the back of a truck. For
the whole of that year, the band was out on the
road, and in the summer came their first US tour,
Hello America!: spread across three months, as they opened for The
(above and left) Def Pat Travers Band, Judas Priest and Ted Nugent. Most
Leppard on the road memorable of all was the show that Leppard played
in the States in 1980.
on August 1, 1980, Joe Elliott’s 21st birthday. At the
Palladium in New York City, they supported
Selling out Sheffield City Hall was a dream AC/DC, whose had released their comeback album
come true for the five young men who had seen so Back In Black just a few days earlier.
many great bands play there in the ’70s. This was On Through The Night also made a big impression
the place where Joe Elliott, at the age of twelve, had on the two guitarists who would later join Def
attended his first concert on October 23, 1971 Leppard in place of Pete Willis and Steve Clark. In
– Marc Bolan and T.Rex on the Electric Warrior tour 1980, Phil Collen was a member of London glam
– and where, one night in late 1978, a year after rock group Girl, and a close friend of Joe Elliott.
Leppard formed, he had scrawled in chalk on a “I thought On Through The Night was great,” Phil
wall beside the front doors: DEF LEPPARD WILL says. “It was very different to all the other New
PLAY HERE IN 1980! Joe’s prediction was realised Wave Of British Heavy Metal stuff. Good melodies,
on April 10, and on that afternoon he and Rick lots of harmonies – it was very cool.”
Savage travelled to the venue from their parents’ Vivian Campbell, at that time in the Irish band
homes on the number 52 bus. Sweet Savage, sensed in Def Leppard a huge
“It was only nine years after the twelve year old potential. “There was so much exuberance in that
me saw Marc Bolan on that stage,” Joe recalls. album,” he says. “But more than anything else,
“And now, that stage was ours. Being a headline I could hear the deep ambition in the band.”
act was what we wanted, and what we believed For the three members of Def Leppard who
– naively, arrogantly, youthfully – that we deserved featured on that album, and every other that the
to be.” band has made since, there is a strong sense of pride
Alongside all the tracks from On Through The in what they achieved. Joe Elliott says simply: “It’s
Night, the band also performed three new and not the greatest record ever made, but I look back
previously unreleased songs in which their future on it with an enormous amount of affection.”
was signposted. Two of these songs would surface A hit in the UK, On Through The Night also made
on 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry – Lady Strange and When The number 51 in the US. It was a strong start. But as
Rain Falls, the latter revamped and retitled Let It Def Leppard knew, from the words that Bon Scott
Go. The third, Medicine Man was also restructured, once sang, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna
and renamed Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop), when it rock’n’roll…
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