Leeds, England - Media Reviews

Dry Ice On The Cake By Lesley Stones

Throughout their short existence Def Leppard have received a lot of varying puclicity, but very little just recently.

So how have they progressed?.

Bit of a bad first impression actually.

'High 'n' Dry' is too weak a number to open with, as for the first few vital seconds it drags along as an utter nonentity.

Still, everyone was head banging along from the start.

They've played here before and both times their reputation has preceded them, with long queues forming early.

As one of Yorkshire's first heavy metal bands made good, there exists a special reverence for them in these parts.

Not that they don't deserve it.

The stage act is presented well, with attractive lights and dry ice at appropriate moments, and singer Joe Elliott moving in a confident, but at times cliched manner.

Amongst album tracks from 'On Through The Night' were scattered a few new songs, such as 'When The Rain Falls' but there was no discernible difference between them.

They still turned them out as noisy and strident as ever.

An improvement would come if second guitarist Pete Willis took a more prominent role.

At the moment it's Steve Clark who takes the major lead breaks, but if better use were made of Willis it would result inever more of those over-the-top screaming high notes.

The essence of metallic music which we love so much.

By Record Mirror 1980.

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