UK Club Tour Story - from Animal Instinct

Although the songwriting was going well the group was getting restless waiting for Mutt. The October starting date had turned to November, then January. Joe became impatient and suggested a short December club tour to test the new material and get a little press, to at least show British metal fans that Def Leppard hadn't turned it's back on them. The tour was originally just going to be the two shows at the Chesterfield Aquarius promised to the paper factory mogul [the band got use of a paper factory in Sheffield to write/rehearse, in exchange for playing the shows]. But over Steve and Pete's misgivings, it turned out to be a weeklong series of shows at some of their old haunts like the Nottingham Boat Club and Retford Porthouse.

"I didn't want to do the tour," Steve asserts. "It was a way to test the new songs, but it seemed silly, that we were trying to prove something to the kids. It would look like we'd already peaked and that we were trailing off, going back to the old clubs. I wanted to play in front of 3000 people again, not 300.

"He was right." Joe concedes. "It was my fault and it was one of the first big mistakes I'd ever made. Steve was totally against it and rightfully so. We got some good press from it, but it was a financial disaster and a waste of a week".

Attendance was depressing. When Leppard played at the Nottingham Boat Club eleven months earlier, four hundred people were turned away at the door. This time, eighty-seven people showed up. Only one hundred and fifty fans came to the Retford Porthouse. In Dunstable, Leppard did good business, about 800 folks. But the show was a disaster. Joe only got halfway up the speaker stack during one of his climb-the-PA stunts when he fell off, straight on to his ass. Pete Willis' guitar also kept going on the fritz. Fortunately, two guitarists from a London-based glam-metal band called Girl, Gerry Laffy and Phil Collen, came to cheer the Leppards on. Phil helped Pete switch guitars during one number when Pete's roadie momentarily disappeared.

The band debuted four new songs at the show but without much success. Joe called out one number and when the band kicked in, Rick Allen started playing the wrong song. "We weren't familiar with all the titles yet," Joe says sheepishly. "We had to start that one again."

A little poorer and a lot wiser, Leppard went back to Sheffield to resume waiting.
© Zomba Books 1987.

---

News Story 1980

---

Going Def for a living

Def Leppard have lined up an eight-date British tour next month before they go into the studio with producer Mutt Lange to record their second album.

The band will be previewing new material they've written recently for the album when they play: (see page four of the 1980 tour dates)

There will be a major British tour to coincide with the release of their second album, probably in the spring, and visits to America and Europe are also being lined up.

<BACK