27 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Start SLANG World Tour In Bangkok, Thailand

Sunay, 28th May 2023

Slang Tour 1996

Def Leppard played the first show of the Slang world tour in Bangkok, Thailand on this day in 1996.

The 'Slang' album had been released on 13th May 1996 and featured a slightly different sound and direction for the band.

The show took place on 28th May at Indoor Stadium Huamark. Plans to start the tour on the 25th in Bombay (now Mumbai) in India were scrapped.

The band had played the city for an acoustic show in late October 1995 during the Vault promo tour.

The only previous full electric performance was the final show of the Pyromania world tour in February 1984.

That show was the last time Rick Allen would play drums with two arms ahead of his 31st December 1984 car accident. Other from the 1995 Vault tour it would also be the city in which he played his first full electric show using an acoustic drum kit. Having returned to using one during the recording of the album.

The Bangkok show was the first of well over 160 to be played from May to December 1996 on the first part of the Slang world tour.

Revealed below is the confirmed setlist from the Bangkok show which was discovered last year printed in a local magazine review. It featured the first performance of 'Billy's Got A Gun' since the opening UK leg of the Hysteria tour in September 1987.

The first leg saw them play their very first shows in many countries in South East Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea and a return to Thailand and Singapore. After this they headed back to Japan for an 8 show run.

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