Def Leppard UK.

[ Def Leppard UK - Def Leppard YEAH! Tour Main ]
Def Leppard Tour 2006. :: Tour Dates
Def Leppard YEAH! Tour - 2006

Band Line-Up - Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell.

Shows Listed - 81. Live Recordings - 22.

First Show - Milan Italy 3rd June 2006. Italy.

Last Show - San Juan Puerto Rico 19th November 2006. Puerto Rico.


The band kicked off the shows supporting the YEAH! album with a (very) brief visit to Europe. Taking in 4 festival appearances in countries not played since 1996: Italy & Sweden. Along with shows in Germany and Holland (not played since 1992). The band headlined their first festival in Europe since 1993 at the Sweden Rock Festival on June 9th where they would play "Wasted" for the only time in 2006.

Rick Allen YEAH! Tour 2006. During this leg the band would also play another rare classic in "High 'N' Dry (Saturday Night)", which was not played elsewhere. Longtime photographer, Ross Halfin, would return to become the tours official photographer & take pictures for an upcoming official photo book.

Following the festivals the band played 3 one-off headline dates in Switzerland and in England. Dissapointing many fans across the UK/Ireland by not playing a full tour in support of the new album. The shows had very stripped down staging save for the 2005 tour video screen. The performances themselves were great and very well received.
In England they would be honoured with a Sheffield Legends Star outside the Town Hall the day before another (near capacity) headline show took place at the Hallam FM Arena and in London the band returned to play a sold out show at the Apollo in Hammersmith.
2005 tour mates Cheap Trick and SAHB played (somewhat lengthy) opening sets at both shows. The band were also joined by Cybernauts keyboardist, Dick Decent who accompanied the band on 'When Love & Hate Collide'. Rick Allen received an overwhelming response when introduced by Joe at the Sheffield gig and the band would include 4 songs from the YEAH! album. Fans were left hoping the band would eventually play a full UK tour for YEAH! in 2007/2008 (or the next studio album), with full production/setlist.

"Lookout!"

The band then kicked off the full YEAH! tour on June 23rd in Camden, NJ. The stage included a similar light show to the X tour but this time they would add a platform on top of the amps behind Rick's drumkit and two sets of stairs leading up to it. The real change from previous tours though was a giant LED video screen behind Rick's kit (banned by UK customs?...). Improved computer animated video clips were shown during the show intercut with live footage of the band's performance. The tour would be another co-headline one with Journey taking the place of Bryan Adams. The setlist was again restricted to 90mins on this leg with just 15 songs played at most gigs. The new staging coupled with large attendances made the concerts much more exciting, despite the limited set times which frustrate hard core fans.
The shows packed with many Journey fans which accounted for the increase in numbers along with the US TV performances. At every show on the 2006 tour Rick Savage would take the spotlight for a bass solo. The first time a bass solo has been performed at Lep gigs. The almost 2min long haunting and melodic solo would lead into 'Rock On' which Sav would start himself before the band joined in for a great new full live version of the song.

"Everybody Says, It's Just Like Rock 'n' Roll!"

Rick Savage YEAH! Tour 2006. Members of both headline acts would play during opening act, Stoll Vaughan's set throughout the tour. Phil & Vivian both joined him on guitar and from Journey, Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain & Ross Valory took turns sitting in on the song 'Alright'. Not only band members would play and Stoll was even joined by Phil's son Rory (playing bass) and his guitar tech, Curtis Laur.
Although the stage time was very short the band did manage to mix up the set a bit and on this part of the tour played many songs not aired in Europe or England. These included the return of 'Foolin', 'Women' and 'No Matter What'. New songs including opener 'Hell Raiser' and '20th Century Boy' would be dropped after the first few dates along with 'Hanging On The Telephone' making it more of a Greatest Hits set by the tours end. During October the band would make their very first appearance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Due to a connection with Rick's brother Robert (his tour manager) a country singer called Tim McGraw joined the band at this gig to sing during 'PSSOM'. One of the very few times anyone has guested on an original Leppard song during one of their gigs.

"We're Gonna Blow Like Dynamite!"

For the final 25 date leg of the tour the band would add pyrotechnics to their show for the first time since 1984. A wall of flames signalled their entrance during 'Let's Get Rocked' and more pyro followed during 'Rock Of Ages' and at the end of the tours final song 'PSSOM'. The video screen was also updated with new graphics for many songs including 'Rocket'. Further rotation of the set continued with the re-introduction of 'MLLAM' and 'Promises' which would be swapped around nightly along with 'Slang' returning to the show.

On this final run of highly successful US shows Phil Collen would join co-headliners Journey during their set in Little Rock, Arkansas to play guitar on one of their songs. One last date took place in Puerto Rico in late November. The band's third time in the country. The 2006 US tour would be considered a success in spite of YEAH! being the bands lowest selling album since the early 80s. Though, sadly, there would be no return to play a full UK tour/proper world tour.


Please contribute [ Fan Reviews/Pics ] for any dates attended. Any information for this Def Leppard tour would be greatly appreciated.



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