Def Leppard News - 17 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Start X/Ten World Tour In SENDAI, Japan

Sunday, 17th November 2019

17 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Start X/Ten World Tour In SENDAI, Japan

Def Leppard 2002

Def Leppard started their year long X/Ten world tour in Sendai, Japan on this day in 2002.

The show took place at the Zepp Sendai venue on 17th November 2002 and was the start of an 8 date Japanese tour to kick off a year on the road.

The 'X/Ten' album had been released in July/August 2002 and initially promoted with a sporadic four month promo tour.

The main 151 world tour did not start until November and saw the band expand their setlist from the last few tours.

Between 22 and 24 songs were played each night for the first four or five months of the tour.

On the first night in Sendai the band opened the show with the first ever playing of 'Ring Of Fire' which featured some co-lead vocal parts by Rick Savage.

By the second night the band were opening with Side One of the 'High 'n' Dry' which was also a first and the setlist was changed up each night. Over three nights in Tokyo 31 different songs were played.

Only four new songs from the current album were played during the tour - 'Now', 'Four Letter Word', 'You're So Beautiful' and 'Long Long Way To Go'.

Following the Japanese leg the band travelled to the USA for 10 main shows after opening with a radio festival show in San Diego.

A UK/Irish tour followed in February 2003 before a huge late March to early October US/Canadian tour.

For the first time in many year the band would then return to the UK for a second run of 10 shows in October and were joined on stage by Queen's Brian May on the last night at Hammersmith Odeon in London.

A short European tour followed which ended with the band's first ever shows in Russia and the final 151st show in Moscow on 24th November 2003.

It was later revealed the band originally planned to play a 29 song set before shortening it down to 21 to 23 songs during the Japanese tour.