UNTIL NOW (2024)
The Band Has Relented And You Can Now See This 1980 Show
The Original Def Leppard Perform On Through The Night Live In Fresno
(Editor’s note: In the intervening six years since this story was first published in 2019 this video was put up and taken down off Youtube numerous times. We will not speculate as to why it is up on the official Def Leppard Youtube feed and hopefully it will remain available so you can judge the performance for yourself.)
Def Leppard was once a heavy metal band. Then they started writing pop.
What happened? Their main hard rock songwriter and guitarist was fired.
Here is the video of the aforementioned guitarist / songwriter Pete Willis and the original Def Leppard performing almost in its entirety, one of the ten greatest debut rock albums of all-time.
UPDATE JULY 8. 2020 – No surprise, you will not see the video. For now it has been pulled by original poster – FresnoMediaRestoration. I wonder why? Hmm.
UPDATE JULY 21 2020 – The video is back. (For now…)
UPDATE JAN 2021 – Video pulled again.
UPDATE 2024 – Now posted on the official Def Leppard web feed for youtube. Joe Elliott stumbled across the video in a bootleg shop in Japan. So for now you can see it.
On Through The Night – Unlike Any Other Def Leppard Album
When Def Leppard recorded their first major label album, they were a heavy metal band though they never called themselves that.
l-r Rick Savage, Joe Elliott, Pete Willis, Rick Allen & Steve Clark c 1980
It was 1980 and Def Leppard had just been signed to a deal with Mercury Records. They were signed on the basis of what three years of honing and craft perfection had wrought – On Through The Night. Previously in 1979, the band printed its own EP and sold an astounding 18,000 copies.
Within the music industry, in order for any band to get a record deal, the band must put forth only their best material. And that is what On Through The Night is. Eleven mostly blistering songs played at a frantic pace with songwriting that displays an ear for catchy and memorable songs.
Here’s the most incredible thing about this video performance of that first album — singer Joe Elliott is 21, guitarists Steve Clark & Pete Willis are 20, bass player Rick Savage is 19 and drummer Rick Allen is – are you kidding me? — 16!!!!