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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.

Media Review - By Tony O'Donoghue

"Rick Allen gave a stunning performance of courage, passion and skill. A most exceptional example of resilience and fortitude."

By Tony O'Donoghue @ Hot Press 1986.


Media Review - From Animal Instinct

"It was lashing down with rain," recalls Joe. "but we didn't care. It was the first time we'd even been out to play in ages."

"If we made a mistake, it didn't matter," argues Joe. "And in the places where we played, if we made a mistake. they'd probably clap anyway. Because nobody ever plays in Ireland."

The Cork gig was far from sold out, a couple of hundred bodies at best, although the band was impressed anybody had shown up at all. For a half hour before show time, everyone rummaged through their road cases trying to find something snazzy to wear. They ended up going on in just T-shirts and jeans, each Leppard downing a shot of brandy to calm their collective nerves. Even Rick, who was used to performing in just gym shorts, agreed to wear a T-shirt. "I didn't want to look like a freak up there. And I still had a lot of scars on my shoulder. Besides, I couldn't be up there wiggling my stump around with all these little girls at the front of the stage."

Of all the Leppards, Sav had the worst case of stage fright. "I was more nervous for that first gig than any other we've ever done. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was just the strange feeling, after all that time in the studio, of performing for people that had paid to get in. There was no stopping halfway through a song and doing it again."

The backstage atmosphere, according to Sav, "was like a football team before a match." Most of the dressing pep talk was for Rick's benefit. "I felt for him," Sav admits. "It wasn't just doing it that was important for him. It was doing it so other people could see him doing it."

"Then we all went out on this tiny stage," Phil recalls, "hit those first few chords and, suddenly, we all remembered." It was, Joe echoes, ''like we'd never been away."

Rick's timing was a little shakey, during the set opener, Stagefright , although even without Jeff up there to cover for him on the first few songs, nobody seemed to spot the screw ups.

"I was messing up all the time, but I covered my mistakes pretty well. I'd miss the odd beat here and there. Or sometimes I'd hit the wrong pre set and the kit's sounds would be all set up for a different song. I'd hit the drum and get the wrong sounds. When it got damp, the patch board had a tendency to change the pre sets on its own. It was all a bit hairy at times." Phil and Steve were having too much fun to notice, revelling in their stock guitar-hero poses and getting up to all the old mischief - kicking each other in the ass, doing silly walks across the stage, flicking switches on each other's guitars as they passed. Incredibly, on that tiny stage, they never once bumped into each other.

Joe refused to milk the occasion with any glad-to-be-back stage raps. He did not want to spoil the band's first show in two and a half years with any "stupid cabaret crap". But when the band retired to the Victoria Hotel for a little apres-gig celebration, it was plain that a very heavy burden had been lifted from Leppard's shoulders. In order to preserve his voice for the next show, Joe kept his mouth shut for most of the party, opening it only to let the liquor in.

By Zomba Books 1987.