This section looks at the first show of the 'On Through The Night' tour in 1980. The opening date took place in St. Albans, England following the release of the album.
"The two armed Rick Allen with Sav was some rhythm section."
Def Leppard started their On Through The Night world tour in St. Albans, England on this day in 1980.
The show took place at the City hall in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England on 5th April 1980.
The venue with a capacity of around 1,200 is located just over 24 miles north of London and is now known as the Alban Arena.
The 21-date tour promoted the first studio album which had been released on 14th March 1980 in the UK.
The album was preceded by the 'Hello America' single which narrowly missed out on a Top 40 entry when it peaked at 45.
The band had warmed up for the tour and the album release by playing over 40 club shows in January/February from Aberdeen in Northern Scotland all the way down to Exeter in Southern England.
Fellow UK rock band Magnum were the main support act with local bands joining the tour in each city/town.
Three new songs were debuted on the tour. 'Lady Strange' which was released on the High 'n' Dry album, 'Medicine Man', an early version of 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)' and 'When The Rain Falls' which later became 'Let It Go' under the guidance of Mutt Lange.
They would return later in the year to play a short club tour in December and road test new material being written for 'High 'n' Dry'.
UK Tour News Story March 1980
Leppard's Spots
Def leppard are going out on their first headlining national tour with Magnum in support and a third, local, band featured at each venue.
The dates are:
St. Albans City Hall April 5, Wolverhampton Civic Hall 6, Liverpool Empire 7, Manchester Apollo 8, Sheffield City Hall 10, Hanley Victoria Hall 11, London Lyceum 13, Bristol Colston Hall 14, Birmingham Odeon 15, Blackburn King George's Hall 17, Bradford St. George's Hall 18, Glasgow Apollo 19, Newcastle Civic Hall 20.
Standing venues including London Lyceum are one-price at 3 a ticket.
Seated venues are priced 3, 2.50 and 2.
The Def-uns are in the singles charts currently with 'Hello America' and their first album, 'On Through The Night', is released by Phonogram this week.
Note - A further 8 shows ere added to the tour schedule after this announcement making 21.
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1980 UK Tour/Rick Allen
But all was not well in Leppardsville. Success brought pressure and the wrong kind of temptations.
Rick Allen, especially, was falling prey to bad influences and the abuse of leisure substances.
After the Lyceum show, the Leppards convened at Peter Mensch's London apartment for a band meeting, a conflab which quickly turned into a point-the-finger-at-Rick session.
"They starting getting on me because I was smoking grass too much with the crew," Rick says.
"I used to get a dressing-down every month. I think sometimes they were really just taking out their frustrations on me."
"But I did have an attitude problem. Big mouth, speaking out of turn all the time. To me, the rest of the world was out of line and I was always right".
His brother Robert, along with his regular road manager duties, tried to keep Rick in line. "but nobody had much control over me.".
Rick finally started to straighten up and fly right after he heard a rumour that the rest of the band planned to fire him.
UK Tour 1980 Fan Photos
Live photos from this tour leg.
SiriusXM/Trunk Nation - Joe Elliott 25th September 2019 Interview Quotes
40th Anniversaries Of OTTN/HIGH 'N' DRY
"You can't see my eyebrows on the radio. Well, thinking about it. We've thought about it you see you've gotta plan these things ahead. We've thought about this about a year and a half ago. And there's gonna be a celebratory release. I don't know how much of this I can say right now I might be breaking protocol."
"But I will say this much. There's a...as a companion piece to On Through The Night there is a brand new just mixed live performance from the Oxford Theatre in 1980 from that tour. Which has never been heard. And it is what it is. It's warts and all. It is what it is. It's us live in 1980. You can't really, you know, we were discussing off mic weren't we about lip synching or overdubbing. You can't expect a 59 year old me to go in and clean up a 20 year old vocal. You know what I mean so it is what it is."
"But I tell you this much the band. As I said in the liner notes when you peer through the curtain of uncertainty that my voice was back in those days there is a fantastic band on stage. And Rick, the two armed Rick Allen with Sav was some rhythm section to considering he was 16 years old and Sav was 17 I think, maybe 18. And Pete and Steve were 17 and 18 years old. It was some band. You know and when you hear it it's spectacular."
"The album was about 42 minutes so when you're on stage it's about 45. So given an intro tape and a bit of talking in between that was pretty much it. We didn't even necessarily play all the album on stage. We played most of it I think."
Def Leppard Press Biography April 1980
Def Leppard Biography
Def Leppard are:
Joe Elliott - Vocals.
Pete Willis - Guitar.
Steve Clark - Guitar
Rick Savage - Bass.
Rick Allen - Drums.
Andy Peebles (Radio 1 DJ) - "It was interesting to hear a rock band whose material managed to sound fresh within the confines of heavy rock."
Geoff Barton (Sounds) - "High powered heavy rock played to a degree of tightness usually achieved after a half-dozen gruelling American tours".
Def Leppard is a five piece heavy rock band from Sheffield and have already gained much interest and support around the UK from their first maxi single which was self-financed and distributed.
They are a new and young outfit but despite their tender years, have shown themselves capable of a competent degree of musicianship.
The average age of the band is 18 and most of the boys have been playing since they were kids. Rick Allen (drummer) has been trained by Kenny Slade (Joe Cocker's drummer in the Grease Band) since the age of 10.
Pete Willis started playing bass at six years of age and Steve has been classically trained since 16.
They write collectively, though Joe Elliott is responsible for the lyrics. Their individual musical influences safe-guard the end product from repetition, but they do admire other bands such as Rush, UFO, Styx and Thin Lizzy.
Def Leppard were voted in Melody Maker's Christmas Poll as No. 4 "Brightest Hope For The 80's", and New Musical Express' poll at No. 6 under "Best Act" category.
Def Leppard look set to head up the new wave of British Heavy Metal.
In the UK, Def Leppard's first maxi single was 'Getcha Rocks Off' / 'Ride Into The Sun', B/W 'The Overture'.
They followed this with their 'Wasted' single, a British tour as support to AC/DC and a spell in the studio recording their debut album with producer Tom Allom.
Their rip roaring rocking album is now released and is entitled 'On Through The Night'.
Def Leppard 1990
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1980 UK Tour
Following On Through The Night's UK release on March 14, Leppard embarked on their most ambitious trek yet, a headline tour of major British rock theaters.
Including some venues like Glasgow and Manchester Apollos where they had previously opened for Sammy Hagar and AC/DC.
An ostentatious pomp-rock band called Magnum got the official support slot, but the Leppards demonstrated their their support for the new heavy metal scene from whence they'd sprung by adding a young local band to the bill at every stop.
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