Tuesday, 1st August 2017
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36 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HIGH 'n' DRY Album At Number 26 In The UK

High 'n' Dry 1981.

Def Leppard's second studio album High 'n' Dry reached Number 26 in the UK album chart on this day in 1981.

The album had been released in the UK on 6th July to coincide with their UK tour.

It entered at Number 35 on 25th July, the final night of the tour in London, and went up to this peak position of 26 a week later.

In all it spent seven weeks on the chart. Three inside the Top 40.

Read some quotes about the album.

At Number One in this week was Cliff Richard with 'Love Songs'.

Other rock acts on the same chart included Motorhead (5) and future tour mates REO Speedwagon (7).

UK Top Five Albums - 1st August 1981

  • 01 - Cliff Richard - Love Songs
  • 02 - Randy Crawford - Secret Combination
  • 03 - Starsound - Stars On 45
  • 04 - Kim Wilde - Kim Wilde
  • 05 - Motorhead - No Sleep Till Hammersmith
  • 26 - Def Leppard - High 'n' Dry - (Peak Position)

High 'n' Dry Album - 1981 Band Member Quotes

Joe Elliott

"We're looking forward to it a lot. We've got some great songs and Mutt Lange is an excellent producer. I think we're going to surprise a lot of people who thought we were just a sort of flash in the pan."

Rick Allen (on Mutt Lange)

"The guy is a genius. He's a slave driver, but he's a genius."

Joe Elliott (on not using Tom Allom again)

"Tom is great, really funny, but we didn't want to use him on the second album. We didn't want to get stuck in a rut, we wanted something different and we wanted it to be a definite improvement, which it is, Mutt is great. He really works you hard and you need that in the studio."

Joe Elliott (on the studio)

"I'll admit I'm a real wimp in the studio basically because there you've got no natural adrenalin, there's no audience, no nothing. Mutt put a lot of dynamics into AC/DC and everybody else and that's what our last album lacked. If this album sounds anything like AC/DC it's not his doing. It's our songwriting. He's given us a sound on this album which we didn't have before."

Joe Elliott (on puppet accusations)

"We've heard all that stuff about how our manager Peter Mensch is manipulating us and how we're the playthings of our record company. Cobblers!."

"Of course they have a say in what records come out and in what tours we do and all that sort of thing. but as far as our music is concerned that's completely down to us. We're not a bunch of idiots who don't know how to make a decision. We've got our own minds and we know how to use them."

1996 Work It Out Album Postcards - Rick Allen Quotes

"This was when we started taking it seriously, and found out what hard work really was."

"Mutt Lange at the helm at Battery studios in Willesden, London."

"Our first venture into video promo saw us featured on a new channel in America called MTV. The song from the album was "Bringin' On The Heartbreak."

"This album was slow to take off but a year after it's release it started to make waves in the U.S. Thanks to "Bringin' " on the MTV."

"This record is a favourite of mine."


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Phil Collen - Guitar
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Phil Collen - Guitar
Phil Collen - Guitar