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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Hysteria Album Studio Windmill Lane Demolished In Dublin

Thursday, 9th April 2015





Def Leppard Dublin.
Screenshot by dltourhistory

The studio where Def Leppard recorded part of their classic 1987 album Hysteria has now been demolished.

The original site of Windmill Lane Studios in the Docklands area of Dublin, Ireland was demolished over the weekend.

U2 famously recorded many of their albums at the studio including their most popular - 1987's The Joshua Tree plus earlier albums 'Boy' and 'War'.

According to local news reports the outside walls which have been spray painted by die hard U2 fans over the years will be saved.

The band used Studio II for recording work on 'Hysteria' in 1985 to 1987. As explained in the quotes below this building that was connected to the main studio closed down some time ago.

The backing vocals for many songs including 'Gods Of War' were recorded in the Windmill II canteen.

Windmill Lane - Animal Instinct Biography Quotes

After Paris, Leppard morale took a nosedive . The band returned to Dublin where they had done pre-production for the album over a year ago - and set up shop in less expensive quarters, Windmill Lane Studios. "Actually, we were in Windmill 2," Joe notes.

"Windmill Lane 1 is the good studio, where U2 record. Windmill 2 is the shitty one, where everybody does jingles for radio ads. But Mutt said it didn't matter as long as we mixed the album on a good desk. He didn't mind at all."

Windmill II And The Gods Of War - Band Interview Quotes

Phil Collen - "It was a little jingle studio. it was an annex to Windmill (I) which was like a great Irish recording studio."

Joe Elliott - "We pretty much finished it off in Dublin at Windmill II. It was just a cheesy little studio and it's gone. It doesn't exist any more. It was a tiny little place. It wasn't even a real studio, it was a jingle studio. It's where they used to do all the adverts for the cheesy cheap radio ads. We locked out this little studio and I remember meeting this guy called Archie Simpson who's a piano tuner. We met him about three years later and he said you cost me a thousand pounds! Why? and he says because I used to get to tune that piano every week and I couldn't get in for a year. Or however long it was because we never used the piano consequently it didn't need doing."

Phil Collen - "It was perfect for what we wanted you know. You didn't need anything extravagant and it's not as though we'd all set up and play at the same time you know everything we did was separately."

Joe Elliott - "Mutt's theory was I can get a decent enough guitar sound in here. I can get a decent enough vocal sound in here. I'm gonna do everything in the mix. You know as long as you mix on a - at the time which was the big thing was an SSL (Solid State Logic) desk. This big - looks like something out of NASA. You know this huge big desk that they were the bees knees the in thing at the time. (Then) he didn't really care where we recorded."

Joe Elliott - "We did the backing vocals upstairs in Windmill II in the canteen. I remember us all stood round the corridor. Sorry stood in the canteen. We're all stood in the canteen round one mike doing the backing vocals for Gods Of War. And it's a big chorus and you know we were doing layer upon layer of backing vocals on this. And everybody was there. There was a couple of friends of ours as well as the band and Mutt stood round singing this thing and Nigel was engineering it."

Rick Allen - "It was Nigel's way of getting back at all of us because we'd - take after take after take - No!. Do it again!."

Joe Elliott - "No, somebody's out of tune."

Rick Allen - "No!. No definitely not."

Joe Elliott - "And after about 20 minutes of this."

Rick Allen - "I just turned around and I said 'You know what? Fuck the Gods Of War!'."






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