Def Leppard Sheffield, England / The First Show 18th July 1978 Setlist The Early Years Tour

home > tour history > 1978 > Sheffield, England

Tuesday, 18th July 1978

Prev | Next

Location / Mosborough, Sheffield, ENGLAND
Venue / Westfield School
Event / School Dance

The first ever public performance by Def Leppard at a local school in Mosborough, Sheffield.

The first time at this venue.

The venue was located around 4 miles from the city centre and a cafeteria within Westfield School.

The school was closed in December 2006 and later demolished.

The band played as part of a school end of term dance event.

According to the 1987 biography Animal Instinct they were paid five pounds by a teacher, played for around fifty minutes and smuggled in some beer in the bass drum.

The band line-up was: Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Steve Clark, Pete Willis and Tony Kenning.

The first song they played was an unreleased original called 'World Beyond The Sky'.

The only other confirmed track was an encore cover of Thin Lizzy song 'Jailbreak'.

An audience recording of this show exists on cassette but it has not been circulated and it's tracklisting/quality is also unknown.

The show was hastily arranged by a local band friend and promoter called Bootleg Bill after Steve Clark had threatened to quit unless they actually played a concert.

This had happened a few days earlier on a band holiday in the Norfolk Broads when they travelled to Ipswich to see a UFO gig.

Joe Elliott returned to Westfield in 1989 for the taping of a scene in the UK BBC TV documentary 'Rock Of Ages - The Def Leppard Story'. He was shown talking about the concert in the hall where it took place. The original building was demolished after a fire in 2007 and rebuilt as the Westfield Sports College about three quarters of a mile away in Beighton.

Read more about this show in the Lep History section.