Media Review - From Animal Instinct

"The next stop was a small holiday resort on the west coast of Ireland with the rather comic name of Ballybunion. With two days off before the show - Jeff Rich was booked to play three Status Quo gigs in between - the band hit the beach fully equipped with flip-flop sandals and silly hats, spending the evenings in local pubs where they were occasionally approached by visiting American teens who could not believe (a) that a superstar band like Def Leppard would even be in a place like Ballybunion or (b) they would actually play here. "They'd see these posters for the gig in a fish 'n' chip shop window," Joe laughs, "and go, 'What? Def Leppard playing here?'"

"Here" turned out to be a shoebox sized venue called the Atlantic Hotel. The stage was barely large enough to fit Rick and Jeff's drum riser, much less the band itself. Nevertheless, in an attempt at setting some kind of Guinness World Record for most-gear-on-smallest-stage, the Leppard crew piled ever piece of Leppard equipment they could on the stage, including enough PA speakers to blow Ballybunion off the Irish map."

"Trouble loomed again at 6pm when Jeff didn't show up for the soundcheck. He'd missed a connecting flight from Stockholm, where he had played a midnight show with Status Quo the night before. There was a taxi waiting for Jeff at nine when he arrived at Shannon Airport near Dublin, an hour and a half's drive from Limerick. By 11:25 though, there was still no sign of Jeff at the hall. His taxi had broken down two miles outside of town."

"Backstage, Joe says, Peter Mensch was whipping up the troops. "Mensch was screaming at us, 'This is your one chance to try Rick out on his own.' Sav is saying 'No' and I'm saying 'Oh, fuck, why not? It's only Ballybunion.' Besides we had to go on. We couldn't wait any longer. So we went for it."

"Halfway through the sixth song, Jeff arrived at the Hall and snuck up behind his drum kit. But the first five songs had already sealed his fate. "We were going mad" raves Joe, "the kids were going mad (Joe had his T-shirt ripped by the crazed Yanks in the crowd). And it wasn't until a couple of songs into the show that I turned around and realised Jeff wasn't there. I'd forgotten all about him. It convinced me and everybody else, especially Mensch, that we could play as a five piece again. We thought that we could, but we figured it would take about a year to get it together."

"At a meeting the next morning, Peter and the five Leppards decided that Rick would play the next show in Waterford completely by himself."

By Zomba Books 1987.

Media Review - From Fan Club Magazine

"The first 3 gigs went really smoothly. After the initial wonder and amazement that we could actually play in front of people in Cork (and that we could play well!! VERY WELL!!!) things actually became slightly mundane. We had no problems with songs, gear, crew anything. Then came Ballybunion!!!"

"We had shifted our schedule to accomodate Jeff because on the Friday August 8th Status Quo were to play a TV show in the UK, and they were going to play two gigs: One with Queen at Knebworth, and the second at midnight in Switzerland."

"With some pretty fancy connections on Sunday, Jeff was to connect up with us in Ballybunion. Ballybunion is, by the way, about as far from any major airport as you can get."

"Yes, guessed it, he missed his flight."

"We were faced with a tough decision in Ballybunion. Should we play the show without him or blow out the gig? We sound checked and it sounded pretty good and decided that we should try and get him to the show as quickly as possible (it turned out to be a taxicab from Dublin which took four hours and 150 Irish pounds ($200)) and that if he didn't make it by showtime which was 11:30pm, we would play with ONE DRUMMER."

"Showtime came and so we went on as a five piece for the first time since Bangkok in Feb'84 three songs into the show Jeff shows up and climbs into his kit, before anyone could tell him that we were going to play it as a five piece - the original DEF LEPPARD."

"After the show, we have a group meeting and decide that the near brush with reality of Def Leppard as a five piece band was enough and that we try Waterford with Jeff on the sidelines."

By Fan Club Magazine 1986.