Castle Donington, England - Media Reviews

By James Gill

The first headliners of the weekend are something of a mixed bag.

Def Leppard

Following their monumental hit-laden ‘09 show was always going to be a tall order and, truth be told, the mighty Leppard don’t quite reach those lofty heights this evening. The catch 22 of the matter is that if they were to play the same set as two years ago, people would complain that they’d seen it before and when they delve into their back catalogue, they lose the crowd to drastic effect.

It’s not that the Lep have an off night, during Action, Let’s Get Rocked, Rock Of Ages and Hysteria, Donington is turned into their back garden and it brings a level of fun that won’t be touched all weekend long. It’s just that, playing to a crowd that seem less educated in their back catalogue, the band’s usual momentum never really gets going.

By Metal Hammer 2011.

By Simon Rushworth

There are few rock bands in the world who can deliver a festival set with such power, passion and professionalism. With Leppard you know what you get and if that's perceived as predictability by some then it is, in fact, no more or less than crowd-pleasing entertainment at its very best.

In stark contrast to fellow headline acts System Of A Down and Linkin Park, the Lepps don’t try to be artistically smart or particularly clever. What they do is play slick hit after slick hit and after the sound problems of 2009 lead singer Joe Elliott produced one of the performances of his life to close day one with a flourish.

Opening with new track Undefeated looked like a gamble on paper but it's got all the makings of a signature Leppard hit - so much so that many of the uninitiated fully believed it had been culled from one of the band's mega-selling 80s albums.

Throwing Let's Get Rocked into the mix early doors set the early pace but the decision to retain the David Essex tune Rock On beggars belief. Apart from allowing Rick Savage an opportunity to tap out a funky bass solo it's difficult to understand why a band with so many self-penned hits still persist in sullying their show with a piece of pop rock pap.

By RushOnRock 2011.

Read the full review at - rushonrock.com

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