Saturday, 18th July 2015
The First Show By Def Leppard
Def Leppard played their first ever public live show in Sheffield, England 37 years ago on this day in 1978.
This was the first time the band had performed live in front of an audience. Featuring the early line-up of Steve Clark, Pete Willis, Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and original drummer Tony Kenning. They played six songs starting with the unreleased track 'World Beyond The Sky' and encored with a cover of Thin Lizzy's 'Jailbreak'.
They have of course gone on to play over 1,800 concerts in more than 50 countries around the world.
Joe Elliott is pictured below at Westfield School in the Mosborough district of the city in 1989 for the Rock Of Ages documentary. Sitting in front of the stage area. The school has now closed down. For more photos visit the 1978 show page.
Westfield School, Sheffield 1989
Animal Instinct 1987 - Joe Elliott Quotes
"What happened was that just as we were about to go on, we realised we hadn't tuned the guitars, So we had to get one of the guys helping us bring Steve's Marshall amp into the dressing room - he left the switch on standby."
"Steve plugged in and walked to the front of the stage, looking brilliant in his tight jeans and long blond hair. All ready to go into the first song, 'World Beyond The Sky', he did his windmill arm motion, just like Pete Thownshend, for the big opening chord and nothing happened. No power. Everybody in the audience was laughing. After a few seconds, we started all over again."
By Zomba Books 1987.
BBC Radio Sheffield - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes September 2013
The First Show
"We kind of hurriedly arranged this gig through a friend of ours called Bill Cooplin or Bootleg Bill we used to call him cause he had this great collection of bootleg records. And he says I've got you a gig at Westfield School. So we had this gig the following Wednesday. We got back on the Saturday night and we had a gig on the Wednesday so frantic rehearsals Monday and Tuesday. And then how are we gonna get there? We didn't have any transport so all my friends got their Dad's cars and we chucked the drum kit in one of the back of these like saloon cars and the guitars on the back seat of another and crammed ourselves in and we drove over to Westfield School. We were so nervous that we stopped off somewhere - took the bass drum out of the bass drum case and filled the bass drum case with beer because we knew we weren't going to manage this unless we had a little bit of Dutch courage."
"We set up and there we were in front of about 85 kids maybe who all sat on the edge. Right round as far away as possible from the stage because they obviously wanted some kind of - it was '78. They probably wanted the Bee Gees. And they got us playing kind of I don't know a cross between Sabbath, Rush, Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, UFO. This just commercial-ish rock music with very loud guitars and big drums and stuff. And it went down OK for us it was just an excuse to play you know. But when we went off and back into this dressing room behind the stage. I say stage a bunch of tables shoved together, they started cheering for more and we were like really? we haven't got any songs left. So we had been doing a few covers just t keep our - you know to learn how to play you know six, seven months earlier."
"So we came out and we did a song called Jail Break by a band called Thin Lizzy and by then they all came down the front and they knew this song. So they all started bopping up and down and we were looking at each other and going OK we need to write more songs like this. And that was really where it all kind of kicked off."
- Def Leppard - Sheffield 1978 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Early Years Tour 1978
- Previous News - 12th July 2015