Def Leppard News - 4 Years Ago Def Leppard Start 2012 Rock Of Ages Tour In Salt Lake City

4 Years Ago Def Leppard Start 2012 Rock Of Ages Tour In Salt Lake City

Monday, 20th June 2016

Def Leppard 2012.
SLC 2012 By Brett

Def Leppard played the first show of the Rock Of Ages tour in Salt Lake City, UT on this day in 2012.

The show took place at the 19,500 capacity USANA Amphitheatre.

A venue where most of the 2011 'Mirrorball (Live & More)' album had been recorded.

The tour had been first announced on 9th March 2012 following months of rumours which were initially started by Poison frontman Bret Michaels.

The tour featured Poison and Lita Ford as the opening acts and tied in with the release of the 'Rock Of Ages' movie starring Tom Cruise and featuring two Lep songs.

The second tour to have this title with the first taking place in 2005 in support of the Rock Of Ages The Definitive Collection album.

The 43 date tour was the second straight US summer tour following the year off in 2010.

The first leg of the tour ran until 22nd July and consisted of 20 shows. The second leg of 23 shows began on 9th August and ended on 15th September in Santa Barbara, CA.

The band would return to Mexico for two shows in Monterrey and Mexico City. Their first in the country since November 2005 on the first Rock Of Ages tour.

The band had warmed up for the tour with two promo events on 6th June for YouTube Presents and then on 8th June at the Rock Of Ages movie premiere.

New Song Debut

Mirrorball album track and then current radio single 'It's All About Believin'' made it's full concert debut during the 18 song show.

It had been rehearsed in the soundcheck for the Rock Of Ages movie premiere on 7th June and was then played live in public for the first time on the Fox and Friends TV show in New York City on 15th June.

Rock Of Ages 2012.

New Stage Design

A new stage was used for this tour which included two sets of stairs at either side and floor light panels bought from Phil Collins. These panels were placed at the front of the stage and all along the Thrust stage and lit up during the show. They continue to be used on the current 2016 tour.

The lighting rig was designed in a Union Jack shape. Five vertical video screens were used above and behind Rick's drum kit and 12 square video panels were placed either side of him.

Show Intro

The two side video screens showed the classic Def Leppard logo over Union Jack flags and a countdown before the start of the show. As The Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again' played on the PA the time counted down to zero and the band's entrance with 'Undefeated'. As the song intro was played on the PA Joe and Sav rose up from behind Rick's drum riser on a hydraulic platform which is still being used by Joe in 2016 at the start of 'Rock On'.

2012 Acoustic Medley Section

For the acoustic section of this show and new medley was unveiled. It featured short snippets of four classic songs before the Soundcheck Version of 'Two Steps Behind' was played.

Initially Joe would introduce the medley by playing a verse and chorus of 'Where Does Love Go When It Dies' which had not been played since the 1996 'Slang' tour. He would be joined by the other band members who all sat at the end of the Thrust stage on an equipment case wheeled out by a roadie.

Rick Allen joined the rest of the band holding a shaker during the second song 'Now' - unplayed since the 2003 X/Ten tour.

Versions of 'When Love & Hate Collide' and the Adrenalize ballad 'Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad' followed before 'TSB'.

This medley got rave reviews from fans and became a highlight of the 2012 tour.

It was recorded by the band and released as a digital download on 18th December 2012 after the tour ended.

Joe Elliott - 2012 Press Release Quote

"We had such a good time going out with Poison in 2009 that we thought it only right to do it again!."

Phil Collen (Pre-Announcement) - March 2012 Interview Quotes

"We toured with them a couple of years ago and we’ve obviously known them since the ’80s. When you’re a band that’s successful and there’s other bands in your genre, at some point you’re going to bump into them one time or another. So we’ve known those guys for years, they’re great and we get on well with them. I actually just played guitar on Bret Michaels’ solo record, I just did guitar solos and backing vocals and some rhythm guitars. I really admire Bret. I think he’s fantastic and [I respect] how much energy he puts into it. A lot of people give him a hard time, but he works his ass off. We don’t know who the third act [of the tour] is yet, [but] we are going to take a third act out."

"We got this movie ‘Rock of Ages’ - it’s being released with Tom Cruise - we’d like it if the third act was kind of featured in that movie, so it’d be like three bands with all these songs that are going to be played all over the place on this movie on tour. We haven’t gotten any dates per say but it’s probably going to start around mid May and then going into the summer I think we’re going to be touring somewhere else. We only just got off the road like two months ago; we had just played London, we had Motley Crue and Steel Panther with us, which was fantastic."