def leppard tour dates 1983

• Rolling Stones 2024 Tour Openers
• Best Four-Album Run in Rock
• Rik Emmett on the Mainstream
• Simmons Post-Kiss Solo Show
• Rock Hall 2024 Roundtable

How Def Leppard Learned Hard Lessons on the ‘Pyromania’ Tour

When Def Leppard completed their Pyromania World Tour on Feb. 7, 1984, there was no doubt they'd made it to the big time.

After 178 shows over almost exactly a year, they had moved from a support act playing medium-sized venues to a headline attraction selling tens of thousands tickets a night. However, it wasn't all smooth sailing.

The road trip had kicked off on Feb. 9, 1983, with two warm-up club shows in London and Dublin before commencing a full run of 177 performances that included a total of 115 in North America. The first 24 of those had been as opening act for Billy Squier, but as sales of their third album, Pyromania , took hold, and MTV A-listed their video for lead single “Photograph,” things changed rapidly.

The second-to-last show took place at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, with Eddie Money , Uriah Heep and rising stars  Motley Crue in support, and 55,000 fans in attendance. At that point, the band reported, Pyromania was selling 100,000 copies a day in the United States and kept off the No.1 spot by Michael Jackson’s Thriller .

“From a professional point of view, it was probably one of the best times of our lives,” bassist Rick Savage said later. “Looking back, and hearing old mixing-desk tapes, we were fucking atrocious most of the time! For some reason, though, it didn't really matter. That is when hype will work in your favor, because when you're hot, you're hot.”

Contributing to that heat was a 17-song set that usually included six tracks from their latest LP: "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” "Photograph,” “Foolin’,” "Rock of Ages,” "Billy's Got a Gun" and ”Stagefright.” Pyromania had marked a move away from their heavy metal beginnings and, with the help of producer John Robert “Mutt” Lange, their move toward a hard rock sound that blended pop with as many other influences as they could fit in.

Watch Def Leppard's 'Photograph' Video

It was also their first album with guitarist Phil Collen , who’d replaced Pete Willis partway through the recording. “Phil is more jazz-rock oriented than Pete ever was,” Savage reflected at the time. “He’s what we call a speed freak. Occasionally he tries to see how many notes he can put in a five-second solo. And with him being more jazz-rock-oriented, he does have a stronger background of chords and what have you. He and Steve [Clark] complement each other really well because they have contrasting styles.”

Collen recalled his debut appearance at the tour warm-up show at London’s Marquee Club, noting that the Jack Murphy Stadium concert had taken place less than a year later. “That was really exciting, to go from no one knowing who you are to getting mobbed and escorted out of a restaurant, stuff like that,” he said. “It’s never really been like that since then. So that was a very exciting, very strange period.”

“We were really good as a band by the time we finished the Pyromania  tour," he told UCR  in 2013. "So the whole thing, I don’t want to say it was like a blur, because I remember all of it, but it was probably the most exciting period of the whole career. ... I think the first time you make it and the first time you go platinum, double platinum and quadruple platinum, it’s unbelievable just how everything changes around you, even though you’re exactly the same.”

For singer  Joe Elliott , the tour featured the highest highs and lowest lows of his career up to that point. He later told Classic Rock that “Photograph” and the follow-up singles “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’” received so much airplay that he “turned the radio off ‘cause I got sick of hearing us every 20 minutes!” However, it also put Elliott through a couple of careful-what-you-wish-for moments.

Listen to Def Leppard Perform on the 'Pyromania' Tour

Joe Elliott Battled Voice Problems on the 'Pyromania' Tour

In June 1983, he began experiencing throat problems that forced the band to drop eight shows; all but one were rescheduled. He admitted to MTV  he was ordered into complete silence and had to communicate with a writing pad. “I ended up putting tape on my mouth, because I'm like that once I get going," he explained. "It's really difficult. I've still got this pad. I actually filled a full pad up. Everything I wanted to ask anybody I had to write down. It was terrible."

Asked if he was doing something wrong with his voice, he replied, “No – what it is, basically, it was four and a half months nonstop. An hour and a half a night. And it just needed a rest.” He added he was relieved that two nights in Detroit were going ahead because, with ticket sales of 28,000 both nights, they’d beaten a record previously set by Led Zeppelin .

In November 1983, Elliott was forced to deal with backlash over comments he made onstage two months earlier. Known among fans as “the El Paso incident,” it took place on Sept. 7 in Tucson while the singer encouraged the crowd to clap along during “Rock of Ages.” “Last night we played in El Paso, that place with all the greasy Mexicans, and they made a lot more noise than that!” he told them.

Word soon spread to the point that band manager Cliff Burnstein received news that “they're burning Def Leppard records and breaking them over the air in El Paso.” Until then, no one knew there was a problem – and only drummer Rick Allen had actually known about Elliott’s words. “I tried to crouch lower into my drum kit, looking over the tops of the drums, thinking, 'No you didn't say that. You couldn't have,’” he said in the band memoir Animal Instinct . “Fortunately, nobody in the audience seemed to notice it.”

Watch Def Leppard's 'Foolin'' Video

But the “greasy Mexicans” remark was reported in the press, and by November it was beginning to seriously impact the band’s image. “That comment, I swear, was aimed at five Hispanic kids who were spitting at us, throwing Jack Daniels and kung fu stars at the band," Elliott explained. "It was aimed at those five kids, not at anybody else in El Paso itself. I was slagging off those five bastards.”

He added that the phrase itself wasn’t intended to be so incendiary, and that it had come into his head “purely because I'm a Cheech & Chong fan, and they use it all the time.” The backlash prompted the cancellation of a proposed tour date in El Paso in 1988, and the band didn’t return there until 2000 (though they toured Mexico in 1993 without any problems).

But there was no doubt the Pyromania World Tour was a massive success. “When I watched Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops , I just wanted to be up on that same stage, covered in glitter and wearing women’s shoes,” Elliott said later. “I dreamed of being the singer in the biggest rock ’n’ roll band in the world. Pyromania made it happen.”

While more turmoil was in store for Def Leppard, unimaginable further success also waited, as producer Lang began thinking about their fourth album and suggested that, since every other rock band in the world was trying to make a “Pyromania 2,” they should instead look at chart rival Thriller for inspiration. A great deal of Hysteria was the result.

​​

The Best Song From Every Def Leppard Album

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff

Watch Phil Collen’s Exclusive Performance of ‘Hysteria’

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Search for products on our site

• Best Sellers
• Drastic Symphonies
• Diamond Star Halos
• High 'N' Dry
• On Through the Night
• Women's
• Blu-ray/DVD
• Rock Brigade
• Create account

Def Leppard Official Store

Pyromania Tour T-Shirt

Def Leppard T-Shirt

Def Leppard Live T-Shirt

Let's Get Rocked T-Shirt

Live 1980 T-Shirt

Rock This Place Long Sleeve

Def Leppard Hoodie

Rock Of Ages Denim Jacket

Pyromania Hat

Pour Some Sugar Mug

Def Leppard Keychain

On Through the Night Bandana

Def Leppard Button Set

Def Leppard Zippo

Your cart is empty

Time to fill up the cart

Pyro Bullseye US Tour 1983 T-Shirt

Release date: 10 May, 2024

This super soft, short sleeve black shirt features an illustration of the band within artwork inspired by the Pyromania album cover printed on the front. Def Leppard 1983 US Tour dates printed on the back.

100% ring-spun cotton Modern classic fit

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Audio: Def Leppard Celebrating 40th Anniversary In 41st Year

Def Leppard celebrates the 40th anniversary — 41st, actually — of its 1983  breakthrough album “Pyromania” with a box set that comes out Friday, April 26th. The package includes re-mastered and Blu-ray versions of the album and two concert recordings, one from Los Angeles during September of 1983 and one from Germany in December of 1983.

Released during January of 1983 “Pyromania” was Def Leppard’s third album overall. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Diamond for sales of more than 10 million copies. It featured two No. 1 Rock chart hits, “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages,” which were also Def Leppard’s first two Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 .

Def Leppard will be playing stadiums in North America this summer with Journey — a repeat of the two bands’ joint headlining tour in 2018 — starting July 6 in St. Louis. Heart , Cheap Trick and the Steve Miller Band will switch off opening spots. Dates can be found at defleppard.com.

Guitarist Phil Collen , who joined Def Leppard before it recorded “Pyromania,” tells us that he and his bandmates are well aware that the box set is coming in after the actual anniversary:

More Info Here

Stories You May Have Missed

Listen Live

JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's 'Crossroads' Collaboration With TAYLOR SWIFT: It Still 'Looks' And 'Sounds Great'

Sixteen years ago, DEF LEPPARD teamed up with a teenage Taylor Swift for an episode of CMT 's "Crossroads" . At the time, Taylor was a country music superstar whose songs were just starting to become pop hits. In a new interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK 's "Rock City" , DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott reminisced about working with the then-18-year-old star. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET ): "It's a strange thing. My kids, who are 14, 7 and 4, have never seen me with Taylor Swift . And I've told them. They didn't believe me. [ Laughs ] Because my kids are Swifties. And they didn't believe that daddy had sung with Taylor Swift . So I had to pull the DVD out and put it on. And they were just like this. [ Opens his mouth wide ]

"I hadn't seen it since 2009 or whatever — [it had been] 15 years since I saw it — and I watched the whole performance, and it was way better than I remembered it being," he admitted. "I didn't think it was bad [at the time], but sometimes things don't age well. This looks great. She looks amazing, she sounds great, the band was on fire, and we played together with her band. So a lot of interesting arrangements came out of that, different textures. It was great to do it differently. But, yeah, we performed [ 'Photograph' ] — in fact, it was the opening track of the show. And it was good fun doing that show. I really enjoyed it, 'cause she got to sing some of ours and I got to sing some of hers. And it was a really interesting week we had together. It was about four days of rehearsals, and then we shot the show twice. They picked the best bits from the two nights.

"Who knew how big she was gonna be?" Elliott continued. "She was popular then, but now she's in a different stratosphere to what she's ever been in before, or most other artists have ever been in. So, we can always look back on that and go, 'Hey, DEF LEPPARD , little old DEF LEPPARD , once got to play with Taylor Swift .'"

Joe previously discussed DEF LEPPARD 's collaboration with Swift in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Asked what signs he saw that this young woman was going to basically conquer the world, Elliott said: "Well, she was already pretty big, so the conquer the world was something that was either gonna happen or wasn't. In fairness, she really did go out, full bore, and conquer the world. Good luck to her for doing that, you know?

"The whole thing came together because somebody walked into our dressing room with a laptop… He goes, 'It's Taylor Swift , she's doing this interview, and she said there was only band that she would ever do a 'Crossroads' with, and it was DEF LEPPARD .' We went, 'Wow, okay, get in touch with her, see what she thinks.' Lo and behold, couple of months go by and, all of a sudden, we're doing this show.

"We've always been that poke-noses-out-of-joint kind of band. I loved the idea of something that's gonna either piss people off or they go, good for you for doing something different. If you're gonna do collaborations, I don't see the point in us doing a song with BON JOVI . Do you know what I mean? It's like, I'd prefer the idea of Jon doing a song with, like, Tom Waits . Us doing something with Loudon Wainwright III or Leonard Cohen . Somebody completely off the wall. Or Elvis Costello and MOTÖRHEAD . Can you imagine what that would sound like?"

Asked how it all worked, Joe said:"Getting hooked in with Taylor was great. She was 17 years old. We were more than willing to do this. We got a new record just out. It was a bit of fun. It was a four-day project. It was two days of rehearsals. It was two shows and everybody did their homework. We turned up knowing all the chords, knowing all the lyrics. There weren't really any difficulties. There were a couple of moments where we sat down, me and Taylor sat down, and she says, 'I can't sing that line,' 'cause it was a bit too risqué, in [ 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' ]. So we'd swap things around. And the fact that I was actually singing from the male point of view in some of her stuff, like in 'Love Story' . As you say, I'm not going to sing something and half-ass it. I'm going to give it my all. Because it doesn't matter. It's a one off project and you've got to sell yourself in the right light. It makes no difference to me whether it's a RAMONES song or a Taylor Swift . I'm gonna do it the best I can."

DEF LEPPARD and JOURNEY will join forces for a summer 2024 North American tour. The 23-date trek will begin on July 6 in St. Louis, Missouri and hit cities including Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and more before wrapping in Denver on September 8. Openers include STEVE MILLER BAND , HEART and CHEAP TRICK , which will vary by city.

DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE have completed several legs of "The World Tour" , which included U.S. dates with Alice Cooper .

DEF LEPPARD 's latest album of all-new material, "Diamond Star Halos" , sold 34,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release in May 2022 to land at position No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the band's eighth top 10 LP.

Of "Diamond Star Halos" ' 34,000 units earned for the week, album sales comprised 32,000, SEA units comprised 2,000 (equaling 2.7 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprised less than 500 units.

DEF LEPPARD 's previous Top 10 albums included "Pyromania" (which peaked at No. 2 in 1983), "Hysteria" (No. 1 for six weeks in 1988), "Adrenalize" (No. 1 for five weeks in 1992), "Retro Active" (No. 9; 1983), "Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection" (No. 10; 2005), "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge" (No. 5; 2008) and "Def Leppard" (No. 10; 2015).

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).

Supported Releases

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:
• Def Leppard
• December 18, 1983 Setlist

Def Leppard Setlist at Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany

• Edit setlist songs
• Edit venue & date
• Edit set times
• Add to festival
• Report setlist

Tour: Pyromania Tour statistics Add setlist

• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) Play Video
• Billy's Got a Gun Play Video
• Foolin' Play Video
• Rock of Ages ( short sing-a-long ) Play Video
• Let It Go Play Video
• Wasted Play Video

Edits and Comments

5 activities (last edit by Fabio , 21 Sep 2021, 13:01 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Billy's Got a Gun
• Foolin'
• Rock of Ages
• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)

Complete Album stats

More from this Artist

• More Setlists
• Artist Statistics
• Add setlist

Festival Time!

Hey, this setlist was played at a festival:

Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 setlists

Related News

Def Leppard and Journey Announce 2024 Tour Dates

Setlist History: Def Leppard Plays 3 Gigs in 3 Continents

Mötley Crüe Still Fighting For Their Right To Party

Def leppard gig timeline.

• Dec 05 1983 Hammersmith Odeon London, England Add time Add time
• Dec 17 1983 Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 Dortmund, Germany Add time Add time
• Dec 18 1983 Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 This Setlist Dortmund, Germany Add time Add time
• Jan 24 1984 Shibuya Koukaidou Tokyo, Japan Add time Add time
• Jan 25 1984 Osaka Kousei Nenkin Kaikan Osaka, Japan Add time Add time

15 people were there

• AdrianSmy991
• avvziggerrh
• Bobstrummer
• Landcruiser66
• MasterOfTragedy
• Posterking63

Share or embed this setlist

Use this setlist for your event review and get all updates automatically!

<div style="text-align: center;" class="setlistImage"><a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/def-leppard/1983/westfalenhalle-dortmund-germany-5bddbf74.html" title="Def Leppard Setlist Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 1983, Pyromania" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.setlist.fm/widgets/setlist-image-v1?id=5bddbf74" alt="Def Leppard Setlist Rock Pop in Concert 1983 #3 1983, Pyromania" style="border: 0;" /></a> <div><a href="https://www.setlist.fm/edit?setlist=5bddbf74&amp;step=song">Edit this setlist</a> | <a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/def-leppard-7bd6eac4.html">More Def Leppard setlists</a></div></div>

Last.fm Event Review

[url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/def-leppard/1983/westfalenhalle-dortmund-germany-5bddbf74.html][img]https://www.setlist.fm/widgets/setlist-image-v1?id=5bddbf74[/img][/url] [url=https://www.setlist.fm/edit?setlist=5bddbf74&amp;step=song]Edit this setlist[/url] | [url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/def-leppard-7bd6eac4.html]More Def Leppard setlists[/url]

Tour Update

The stadium tour: def leppard.

• Mötley Crüe
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
• Apr 26, 2024
• Apr 25, 2024
• Apr 24, 2024
• Apr 23, 2024
• Apr 22, 2024
• Apr 21, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com