38 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD End U.S. PYROMANIA Tour At SAN DIEGO Stadium

Friday, 17th September 2021

Def Leppard 1983

Def Leppard ended the mainland portion of their US Pyromania tour on this day in 1983 in San Diego, CA at Jack Murphy Stadium.

After 116 shows across the USA and Canada the band headlined the KGB-FM 101 Sky Show VIII event in front of 52,000 fans.

The very first time that Def Leppard headlined a stadium show.

Also on the bill were Eddie Money, Uriah Heep and Motley Crue. Clips from the show can be seen in the VH1 'Ultimate Albums: Pyromania' special as filmed by Joe's then girlfriend Denise.

The tour started out in March and April 1983 with 24 shows played as support to Billy Squier.

Due to the success of 'Photograph' on both radio and MTV, the band were selling most of the tickets on that tour and going down better than the headliner. They taped an appearance on legendary music show 'American Bandstand' before moving up to headline status on 29th April in Odessa, TX.

Within a few weeks 'Photograph' peaked at Number 12 and the 'Pyromania' album spent two weeks at Number Two behind only Michael's Jackson's Thriller.

By then all shows were selling out and they even broke sales records held by Led Zeppelin, including two shows in Detroit, MI in late August.

In a sign of things to come in later years, Joe suffered throat problems in the middle of June which meant one show had to be cancelled and six others rescheduled to July/August.

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