It’s been 28 years since Rick Allen, Steve Clark, Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and Pete Willis first got together in a spoon factory in Sheffield, England to form Def Leppard.
Their first album On Through The Night was released in 1980. The band toured the world with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest and AC/DC.
In 1981, Producer Robert John Mutt Lange came aboard for album number two, High N Dry. A year later, when the guys were already recording the follow up, Pyromania, a new cable music channel called MTV started playing a live performance video of Bringing on the Heartbreak , a song from High N Dry . The band had their first U.S. hit, and the album started selling like hotcakes in the U.S. (20 years later, the song would be covered by Mariah Carey).
In the middle of the year-long recording of Pyromania, Pete Willis was fired when his drinking began to effect his guitar playing. Phil Collen (from the London band, Girl) replaced him the next day. Upon the release of the album (and the video for the first single, Photograph ), all hell broke loose! Radio stations everywhere in the world were playing Def Leppard. The album sold 100,000 copies a week for the better part of the year. They toured relentlessly. If you didn’t have a Union Jack t-shirt in 1983, you weren’t cool.
During the recording of Hysteria the band suffered a major blow. On New Year’s Eve 1984, Rick Allen lost control of his car and was thrown from the vehicle. His left arm was severed. Just months after the tragedy, Rick taught himself to drum one-armed with the help of an electronic kit. Burnt out from recording (and several producer changes, after Mutt initially passed due to exhaustion), the band decided to play a few warm up shows. A triumphant performance at Castle Donington in August of 1986 confirmed that Rick Allen and Def Leppard could get along just fine with his new drum kit and new style of playing. Released in August 1987, Hysteria spawned 7 hit singles and became one of the best selling albums of all time. The band played 227 concerts in support of Hysteria , selling out arenas and stadiums around the world; and resulting in some of the most implausible tales of success and excess in rock & roll history!
In 1991, while in the midst of recording album number five, and after several aborted attempts in rehab, Steve Clark died at the age of 30 from alcohol poisoning.
Devastated, but determined to survive, the four surviving band members persevered. And in April of 1992, Adrenalize was released. That same month, the band asked Irishman Vivian Campbell (Dio, Whitesnake) to join them. Viv’s hazing began with the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, which was aired live around the world. Adrenalize debuted at #1 and remained in the top spot for 5 straight weeks. After another worldwide tour, the band returned home to Sheffield for a show at Don Valley stadium in front of a sold out crowd of 40,000 fans.
In 1994, Def Leppard started a new chapter with Vivian’s first time in the studio as a member of the band. The band recorded Slang in a house in Marbella, Spain. During the recording, their record label suggested releasing a greatest hits album. Vault is released in Oct 1995, followed by the aforementioned studio album, Slang , six months later.
To promote the Vault collection, the band played 3 continents in a day . They started the day with a set at midnight in Tangiers, Morocco; then flew to London for another hour-long acoustic set; and finished the day with a performance in Vancouver, BC. For their efforts that day, Def Leppard now have an official entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.
In 1999, Def Leppard was honored in the U.S. by the RIAA with the prestigious Diamond Award for their album Hysteria. The Diamond Award recognizes sales of over 10 million. Hysteria to date has sold over 18 million albums worldwide, bringing Def Leppard’s total career sales to an astounding 60 million, a feat not many bands and only a handful of British artists have been able to achieve (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Eric Clapton). Four years later, the band received their second Diamond Award for Pyromania making them one of only 5 rock bands in history to reach this plateau (the others are Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin).
Def Leppard was one of the first bands to be featured on VH1’s popular TV series Behind the Music. In July 2001, VH1 featured the tragedies and triumphs of Def Leppard in movie form entitled Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story , which scored the highest ratings for VH1 among it’s 25-34 year old viewers.
X the tenth album, was released in 2002, and the band returned to the road to play scores of sold-out shows.
Vault has remained in the Top 100 of the Billboard Top 200/Top Catalogue Albums Chart since its release almost 10 years ago. Still going strong, Vault, continues to enjoy annual sales of nearly 500,000 copies. Their second greatest hits collection, Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection was releasee in May 2005.
The band continues to sell out arenas worldwide with an audience so diverse it includes everyone from metal heads to the Queen of England.
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