If you’re not familiar with the band and want to start from the beginning – pick up a copy for yourself. as I felt I should make the effort – though each album left me cold.Ĭlearly I’m in the minority as in the blink of an eye Def Leppard became a stadium act – and fair play to them for making squillions of quid as a NWOBHM-era band made good. I did try to like High and Dry, Pyromania, Hysteria etc. Didn’t like it nor have I liked any of their albums I’ve heard since. HA HA.Īnyway – Def Leppard not for me after On Through the Night. I got my “revenge” by taking her to see Rush a time or two. However those evenings were for me hollow affairs with no bite up there on stage. Then we have Sorrow is a Woman and a misfiring ballad which never takes off.Įarly which found their way on to it such as Rocks Off, Wasted, Satellite and Overture lost all their power and swagger with making On Through the Night a big miss in my book.Īt various times during the 1990s I was (somewhat reluctantly) dragged to see them a few times by an old flame who did like them. Hello America perhaps giving a hint as to where the band’s attention was turning – the vast untapped fortunes to be made over the pond. Should hit hard – right? But it doesn’t – well I think it doesn’t. In my opinion a cheesy cover and production which sucked the life out of the promising heaviness in to overly glossy songs with the bite taken out of them. And surely their debut album would be further proof of that.Įr, well……for me that’s where it all started to go wrong and I’ve not had any time for Def Leppard since On Through the Night came out in 1980. That initial EP from the Leps (how I wish I still had my original copy of that) showed what a brash, confident and talented mob they were and surely on the escalator to the top as a hard rock/metal band. Saw them many a time around the city in teeny-tiny venues and once took the train over to Manchester to see them support Sammy Hagar leaving immediately after their set to make the last train home over the Pennines. Way back then in the late 1970s, the Leps, being from Sheffield, were home town favourites. Along with that other lot named after a medieval torture device one of the most successful bands with their roots in the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal days going on to spectacularly successful careers and untold riches. Of course, the “Getcha” is missing from this album and it’s been shortened to just “Rocks Off” but it’s still a great tune. Any one of those songs would not be out of place in a modern Leppard set if they chose to play them. There are some good songs on this album namely Rock Brigade, Wasted, Overture, Hello America, When The Walls Came Tumbling Down, and the classic Getcha Rocks Off. I remember the song Hello America caused a bit of a stir when renowned rock journalist Geoff Barton accused the band of selling their souls to the USA and waving bye bye to the fans in the UK. He sought of had a point as they became huge because of the US, but there is no way anyone could have guessed how huge they would become. It shows that if you have the right record label it means everything. Now those songs appear on this album, albeit re-recorded. That EP was raw but killer, and you knew that they had a shot. I think I mentioned in a previous review that I saw them at a pub in Sheffield completely by accident just before their Getcha Rocks Off EP came out. This album as produced by long time Judas Priest producer Tom Allom. They just needed the right producer, and boy did they get the right one – but not on this album. We all know how the future turned out for Def Leppard, and when you hear this album now you can see all the elements were in place to make a great rock band.
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