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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
14 Years Ago Def Leppard Start X/Ten World Tour In Sendai, Japan

Thursday, 17th November 2016





Def Leppard 2002.
World Tour 2002/2003

Def Leppard started their year long X/Ten world tour in Sendai, Japan on this day in 2002.

The show took place at the Zepp Sendai venue on 17th November 2002 and was the start of an 8 date Japanese tour to kick off a year on the road.

The 'X/Ten' album had been released in July/August 2002 and initially promoted with a sporadic four month promo tour.

The main 151 world tour did not start until November and saw the band expand their setlist from the last few tours.

Between 22 and 24 songs were played each night for the first four or five months of the tour.

On the first night in Sendai the band opened the show with the first ever playing of 'Ring Of Fire' which featured some co-lead vocal parts by Rick Savage.

By the second night the band were opening with Side One of the 'High 'n' Dry' which was also a first and the setlist was changed up each night. Over three nights in Tokyo 31 different songs were played.

Only four new songs from the current album were played during the tour - 'Now', 'Four Letter Word', 'You're So Beautiful' and 'Long Long Way To Go'.

Following the Japanese leg the band travelled to the USA for 10 main shows after opening with a radio festival show in San Diego.

A UK/Irish tour followed in February 2003 before a huge late March to early October US/Canadian tour.

For the first time in many year the band would then return to the UK for a second run of 10 shows in October and were joined on stage by Queen's Brian May on the last night at Hammersmith Odeon in London.

A short European tour followed which ended with the band's first ever shows in Russia and the final 151st show in Moscow on 24th November 2003.

It was later revealed the band originally planned to play a 29 song set before shortening it down to 21 to 23 songs during the Japanese tour.

Read Joe's thoughts as he was interviewed just after the tour began in Japan. As in the UK/Europe the album cover in Japan was also a black X on a white background.

Def Leppard 2002.
UK Advert

Joe Elliott - November 2002 Interview Quotes

"Fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. We started off in Sendai. And then for the first time ever we went to Kanazawa. And then Nagoya, Osaka and then Yokohama. And then three nights in Tokyo. The crowds have been great. I think they've also got, they're aware of now. Internet, rumour, talking, telephone, that we're doing a different set every night. And some nights we're opening up with side one of 'High 'n' Dry'. And other nights we're opening up with like 'Ring Of Fire'. We're doing, we've got you know in the pool of songs at least one song from every album. So you know it's different each night. And I think that's good for the band for the audience."

"It is but I think you know Def Leppard, we wanna come across as a rock band. Not a heavy metal band, but as a rock band. And you know it'd be very easy for us to open with 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)' because we've done it so many times or 'Stagefight'. But we wanted to do something that had the same impact but was new. Or at least we've never done if before. So in actual fact Sendai is the first time ever we played 'Ring Of Fire'. So the first time we ever did it was actually in Japan which I think is nice. But it is it's totally hardcore but it's a great fast number and it gets the crowd going and then we keep it up with two more songs where it's just bang, bang, bang. It gets the energy level going."

"They, it's funny, even in Sendai, the first night I was really surprised. I sing a lot with my eyes closed but when we do the new material my eyes are open. Anybody walking out?. You know and 'You're So Beautiful' went down like an old song. You know it went down the same as 'Animal' and 'Photograph' almost. It was amazing. 'Long Long Way To Go', they listen to the song. They stand there while we perform it like this. And then when it finishes they cheer and clap."

"And also 'Now' because they've seen the video no doubt. They join in on that one. And 'Four Letter Word' as well. And 'Four Letter Word' in. When we end 'Four Letter Word' the cheer I think for the last three shows has been louder each time. It's been as loud or even louder than for things like ''Pour Some Sugar On Me'. It's amazing. It's very flattering and it's hard to understand how these songs have become so popular so quickly. But I think what it is, is they just enjoy the band's performance and they're cheering all the songs. There's not really a dip ."

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