This section looks at the 'Adrenalize' world tour in Dublin, Ireland. The first show of a massive 17-month long world tour that would last until September 1993.
"We haven't really played together since October 1988."
Def Leppard started the main Adrenalize 7-Day Weekend world tour on 19th June 1992 in Dublin, Ireland.
The first show of the tour which took place at The Point Depot in Dublin.
The Adrenalize album had been released on 30th/31st March.
The band unveiled their new In The Round stage which featured the new album cover design and a huge movable lighting rig/drum riser.
Live footage shot at this show was filmed for an Italian TV special and clips were also used in the 1992 MTV Europe Rockumentary.
The 25 minute special from Italian TV can be viewed below along with photos and quotes.
The rare footage showed the crew and band setting up and preparing the stage for the first show.
They also talked about the upcoming world tour with contributions from all of the band plus the lighting designer, stage manager and sound engineer.
The band had warmed up with 13 club shows around Europe in May/June to break in "new guy" Vivian Campbell before starting the main world tour here using their second In The Round stage.
Adrenalize Tour 1992/1993
The first UK and Ireland leg saw them play shows in Dublin, Glasgow, two nights in Sheffield, two nights at the prestigious Earls Court Arena in London and three nights at Birmingham's NEC Arena before ending in Vivian's home city of Belfast. The first time they had played 'In The Round' outside of the USA/Canada.
This was followed by an Australia and New Zealand tour that included two nights in both Melbourne and Sydney supported by B.B. Steal.
The huge US/Canadian arena leg of the tour lasted from August 1992 until early April 1993 with shows billed as 'An Evening With Def Leppard'. The concerts lasted for well over two hours and did not feature a support act.
The 20 date European leg in May/June 1993 saw them revert back to playing at one end which would continue for the rest of the tour. This leg ended with a headline appearance in front of 55,000 fans in Germany and 40,000 fans in Sheffield at Don Valley Stadium. Recording work was also completed on the 'Retro-Active' album in Dublin and on tour.
The final North American leg featured a more stripped down stage with the movable lighting rig gone and no lasers used. Mostly outdoor amphitheatre shows were played from July to September with Ugly Kid Joe continuing their supporting role which began in Europe.
After 241 shows they ended the tour with three shows in Mexico at the end of September 1993.
This tour remains the longest tour in their live history and is unlikely to be surpassed.
The show was originally scheduled for the 18th June but then moved to the 19th - as shown on the promo posters below.
Def Leppard Dublin, Ireland - 19th June 1992 Setlist
- 01 - Stagefright
- 02 - Tear It Down
- 03 - Women
- 04 - Too Late For Love
- 05 - Hysteria
- 06 - Make Love Like A Man
- 00 - Phil Collen Guitar Solo
- 07 - White Lightning
- 08 - Foolin'
- 09 - Animal
- 00 - Vivian Campbell Guitar Solo
- 10 - Gods Of War
- 11 - Rocket (Extended Version)
- 12 - S.M.C. (acoustic instrumental)
- 13 - Bringin' On The Heartbreak (acoustic/electric)
- 14 - Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
- 15 - Photograph
- 16 - Armageddon It
- 17 - Pour Some Sugar On Me
- 18 - Let's Get Rocked
- 19 - Love Bites
- 20 - Rock Of Ages (extended sing-a-long)
Joe Elliott - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"It's really cool. The lighting rig we've got is a phenomenal lighting rig. It just looks like, I don't know, the USS Enterprise to me. It's like a Space station. It all moves. It's really kind of state of the art which ties in with the kind of music we make because we use the same kind of production techniques making the music as we are live to visualise it all."
Phil Collen - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"People can see a lot clearer on this stage. The site lines are clearer and everything's a bit lower. There's little ramps down here. You know we run down them. We're a lot closer to people."
Rick Allen - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"There's a hydraulic ramp that takes me up I think something like six feet off the floor of the building and it also tracks across the stage. All the way down to this point. All the way over there. And then just like the last stage that we had. The last drum riser. It also goes around. So it's just a ploy. Trying to keep up with the guys you know running around all over the stage. It the only way that I can get over to the audience as well. It's like being at a fair ground for the two hours that we play the show. But it's kind of fun. I've always liked the carnival rides so it's right up my alley."
Joe Elliott - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"It's true what they say. A band is as good as it's crew. And if you've got a good crew, you've got a happy band. If you've got a happy band, you've got a good performance. If you've got a good performance, you've got a happy crew. And it's just one big, not vicious circle, the opposite, it's a happy circle."
Phil Collen -19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"We're gonna do a pretty extensive Australian tour and that takes in New Zealand as well. Then we're in the States for about seven months and that's pretty much gonna cover everywhere. Then back to Europe, do everywhere we played on the club tour but you know a larger venue. You know with all this instead of like a tiny club. Then back to America I think and Japan. And then wherever anyone wants us I guess we'll go ."
Dublin 1992
Rick Allen - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"Obviously really looking forward to doing the tour because we haven't really played together since October 1988. And it's all new. New stage and obviously you know with Vivian joining it's gonna be a whole new sort of experience. And I think everybody's really positive about it. Everybody's looking forward to it. So I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of fun."
Dublin, Ireland 1992 Fan Photos
Scans by dltourhistory.
Joe Elliott - 19th June 1992 Interview Quotes
"The band's now tighter than it's ever been at any stage of it's career. And everybody's really into their gig which is the nice thing you know. It's like there's this myth that rock and roll is get out there have a bottle of Jack, line of coke, smoke a few cigarettes. Get elegantly wasted and just like oh, do the gig as well. It's the other way around with us. The gig's the only thing that we're bothered about. There might be a few beers afterwards. but everybody's really working hard. Warming up before we go on. Stretching exercises or vocal exercises. Playing the guitar or Rick playing his drums before we do the gig so everybody's on top of what they're doing before we go out on stage."
Dublin, Ireland - Media Review
Def Leppard Road Warriors By Pamela Shaw
"It's been five years since we played here, and a lot's changed since then."
Dublin, Ireland, was the launch pad picked by Def Leppard to blast off their 1992 Adrenalize world tour.
The 7,500 seat venue, The Point, was almost filled to capacity as locals witnessed the first ever non-club performance with new guitarist Vivian Campbell.
Campbell replaced Steve Clark who, in case you've been living in a cave recently, died in January 1991 of an overdose.
As the sweat dried in his dark, lanky hair, Vivian asked the quintessential question as he mingled in a back stage corridor after the gig.
"How was it?."
A simple enough question to which there was no easy answer.
Of course, given the casual nature of the query, the reply came fast and frank.
"Great, man. You guys rocked!."
And rock they did, through two hours and twenty minutes of fist-waving songs that seem to have been written with the 'enormodome' audience in mind .
Unfortunately there was a major distraction with the placement of the stage, which had been laid out in the center of the assembly hall, creating an 'in the round' view for the fans that seemed better suited for Shakespeare than for headbanging.
The state itself, was cool enough, though, a steel and girder recreation of the eyeball and lightening 'Adrenalize' album cover.
Complete with a lighting rig identical to the one seen in the Let's Get Rocked video.
After Scottish rockers GUN had warmed up the already anxious crowd, the Irish Lep-holics scurried off to the bar for yet another Guinness before settling in for the main event.
The booming heartbeat of a bass drum pounded out the cadence as 6,000 Irish fans screeched in delight.
The stage, still shrouded in it;s black veil, was illuminated with purple and green cross-hairs as if some crazed militant group were targeting it.
Joe Elliott's voice rang through his hometown arena, "I said welcome to our show, it's just you and me babe, we got the whole damn night to go!".
The curtains finally dropped, and the love affair between Def Leppard and their fans was reborn.
With the second song 'Tear It Down', a pattern emerged which was to repeat throughout the concert.
Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell traded off solos within many songs, exhibiting much less a case of 'I'm the lead guy and you're the rhythm' than you usually see in shows.
And drummer Rick Allen, seated atop a moving circular platform, seemed an island unto himself as he was spun and twirled this way and that.
His drumstick seemed exclusively to attend the high hat and cymbals, but his legs got a real workout as he did an admirable job of preserving the musical integrity, if not every complex drum fill, in the songs.
'Hello Dublin!' Joe Elliott enthused as the second song ended.
'This is the first day of our Seven Day Weekend Tour. Are you ready to rock?!'.
The crowd roared as two separate keyboards on opposite sides of the stage rose from the steel below and the opening licks to 'Women' blared through the already sweaty hall.
It was the most recognisable song so far, and clenched fists pounded the stagnate air above to the forceful beat.
Bassist Rick 'Sav' Savage ran from side to side, playing keyboards first one way, then another.
'Did you ever see a laddie go this way and that?' asks an old Irish children's tune.
Well, you have if you've seen the new Def Leppard show.
This way and that way and this way and that way.
'Hysteria' was up next. Rather than providing a lull in which the crowd lost it's energy, it was more of a lullaby.
The fans rocked back and forth contentedly like a baby in its mother's lap.
A freckled six year old girl hopped up on daddy's shoulders for a better view.
Her little head emerged above the crowd just in time to see Elliott strip off his denim jacket and start singing 'Make Love Like A Man'.
The Irish parents consider thus some strange sort of sex-education or what?.
The audience went wild with recognition of this recent hit - no doubt aided in part by MTV's incessant loyalty to mondo-rotation for every single Lep release (Yes, they watch MTC all day there too).
A sobering sombre moment erupted as Joe Elliott introduced the next song.
'It's been five years since we played here,' he said 'And a lot's changed since then. We had to say goodbye to a real good friend named Steve Clark'.
The fans, unsure of the appropriate response to this statement - to cheer seemed wrong somehow - stayed mum.
Elliott blew a kiss towards heaven, then shifted the mood by announcing.
'We've got a new guitarist, he's from Belfast. Say hello to Vivian Campbell!'.
A loud cheer burst forth as Vivian soloed wildly, enjoying the instant acceptance of the crowd with is chunky-chorded approach to 'Foolin''.
Appropriately enough, for the next song everyone except Rick Allen sat on the sides of the stage with acoustic guitars and strummed a slow moody opening to 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak'.
Another slower song from the new LP 'Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad' provided the last relaxed breath the crowd would have, with the big finish consisting of their heavy-weight hits 'Photograph', 'Armageddon It', 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' and 'Let's Get Rocked'.
The five band members then disappeared under the stage, but we all knew they'd be back.
Partly because they still hadn't done their other huge hit Love Bites, but also because we knew they were trapped like rats under the stage, with no way to exit unblocked by the fans.
The Irish patrons in the crowd wooed them back on stage by chanting the national football anthem (that's soccer to you and me).
Elliott is said to be such a fan of Sheffield United team that every other Saturday during the season he hops on a plane, rents a car, and picks up his Dad to take him to their games. You've got to love a guy like that.
This hometown crowd certainly did love Def Leppard, chanting 'Ole, Ole, Ole' until the lights came back down for an encore.
With a monstrous one-two punch of 'Love Bites' and 'Rock Of Ages', it was a clean KO in the final round.
Read the rest of this review on the show page.
View all the available footage from the show on this YouTube playlist.
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