On October 26, 1995, Def Leppard played an acoustic show in Singapore, Malaysia at the Hard Rock Cafe. The show was filmed and broadcast by Channel V as part of their V Series concerts. Channel V is their version of MTV. Six songs from the show were later released on the Limited Edition of the UK ‘Slang’ album.

This bootleg DVD I have was recorded from teh show on the Television. It is a little grainy because TVs were not 4k back then. The sound quality is really great. There is an audience recording of this show out there somewhere that has two additional unreleased songs (at the time). The two songs were from the upcoming ‘Slang’ album. The songs were “All I Want Is Everything” and “Where Does Love Go When It Dies”…I’d like to hear those two pre-Slang songs.

The stage is small and intimate. Vivian Campbell, Rick Savage, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen are lined-up and everyone has acoustic guitar…welll Rick has a bass (not acoustic though). Rick Allen is banging away behind them on the drums. They kick it off with a high energy performance of “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. The band is having fun and the crowd is loving it. Between each song, we get short little interviews and I normally don’t like the show to be interrupted, but this was a TV show, not an actual concert so I can be okay with it.

“Armageddon It” is up next and not one of my favorite songs, but acoustically, it is a another fun track and I enjoyed it. Surprise. Then they played a song from their greatest hits album “Vault” (that I will discuss next week). The song is the ballad “When Love And Hate Collide”. The lights go down and the tempo slows. Joe sounds great on this one and when the boys assist on the backing vocals, they really hit it out of the part with this one.

“Hysteria” starts out with Joe on acoustic and then Viv and Phil come in with that recognizable riff. They add a little echo to Joe’s vocals to make it sound a little more like the album and it does. What is nice about these performances is that there is no light show, no running around on the stage trying to rile up the crowd, it is just the boys sitting there with their acoustic guitars and entertaining the crowd. Hard to do, but they do a great job. They ask the crowd to sing the next one and the next one is “Animal”. I don’t hear them singing though. But the band sings along and they sound fantastic. I’ll admit a little that this one is little dull compared to the studio track which has so much going on musically. They still do a good job don’t get me wrong.

The band loves their Bowie and so they go in to “Ziggy Stardust” next. They’ve done this one a long time and they nail it every time. A great rendition of the song and Leppardized a little. They then go in to one of my favorite Leppard tracks of all time from ‘Retro Active’ and that is “From the Inside”. The guitar work is fantastic, the tone is as dark as the lyrics. Viv also has a nice little solo in it. A brilliant track that I so wish they still played live.

If you like the Stones, sorry “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” well I guess you can. It opens with solo acoustic work by Phil Collen before Joe comes in on vocals. They add the echo again to grand effect. Another song they cover a lot and nail it every time. They make it their own as well. And they actually got the crowd to singalong on this one. The band went in to Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” before going back in to the Stones classic.

And as acoustic shows they do around this time, they play “Two Steps Behind” and wow, the crowd was in to this one and started singing immediately along with Joe. Crazy. A very popular Lep song I guess. That energy made for a fun song and great performance from the band. Phil got the solo on this one and then the crowd helped them sing it out. They ended things with another cover and this one was a Marc Bolan & T. Rex song called “Get It On”. Not sure they crowd knew this one as well as the Lep boys, but the Lep boys don’t seem to care. They rock it out all with big smiles. I loved it at least.

And that is all there is and you know, that is enough. A great short set of Lep classics along with some classic cover songs. I would love to get this whole show on CD or vinyl. I know 6 of the 10 songs are on that UK version of Slang, but I want those covers especially “Get It On” as I don’t have that one anywhere. That would be a cool addition to the collection. For now, I’ll take this. Although the video itself was a little grainy due to the fact it was copied off a TV show, the sound was spectacular and the boys did a great job. Joe’s vocals were on fire and the band was really enjoying themselves. If you see this one out there, grab a copy. My Overall Score is a 4.5 out of 5.0 Stars.

NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – ‘VAULT: DEF LEPPARD GREATEST HITS 1980-1995′ (1995) – ALBUM REVIEW

THE DEF LEPPARD COLLECTION SERIES

1. Def Leppard E.P. – 7″ Single (1979)
2. First Strikes 1978-1979 (Bootleg CD)
3. Girl – Sheer Greed (1980)
4. On Through the Night (1980)
5. When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26 1980) (2020)
6. High & Dry (1981)
7. Too Many Jitterbugs – B-Sides And Rarities (2020)
8. Raw – Early BBC Recordings (2020)
9. Girl – Wasted Youth (1982)
10. Pyromania (1983)
11. “Photograph” 7″ Single (1983)
12. “Too Late For Love” 12″ Single (1983)
13. Live at the L.A. Forum 1983 (2018)
14. Seattle, August 3, 1983 (Bootleg CD)
15. Pyromania TV Collection (Bootleg DVD)
16. Hysteria (1987)
17. “Animal” 7″ Single (1987)
18. “Women” 7″ Single (1987)
19. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” 7″ Single (1987)
20. “Hysteria” 7″ Single (1987)
21. “Armageddon It” 7″ Single (1988)
22. “Love Bites” 7″ Single (1988)
23. “Rocket” 7″ Single (1989)
24. Animal Instinct – The Def Leppard Story – Book Review (1987)
25. Rarities – Volume One (2018)
26. Live in Mountain View – August 17, 1988 (Bootleg DVD)
27. Historia – DVD (1988)
28. Live: In the Round, In Your Face (CD Video / DVD) (1989)
29. Adrenalize (1992)
30. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” – Cassette Single (1992)
31. “Tonight” CD Single (1993)
32. Live Shefield 1992 (Bootleg DVD)
33. Retro Active (1993)
34. Visualize DVD (1993)
35. Hard Rock Café – Singapore, Malaysia October 26, 1995 (Bootleg DVD)
36. Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) (1995)
37. “When Love & Hate Collide” – CD Promo Single (1995)
38. Video Archive (1995)
39. Slang (1996)
40. Montreal: The Classic 1996 Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
41. Live Bites: FM Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
42. Live in Argentina 1997 (Bootleg DVD)
43. Euphoria (1999)
44. Rarities – Volume Two (2019)
45. Rarities – Volume Three (2019)
46. Tokyo 1999 (Bootleg CD)
47. Cybernauts – Live (2000)
48. X (2002)
49. Hysteria: Classic Albums DVD (2002)
50. Best of Def Leppard (2004)
51. Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (2005)
52. Yeah! (2006)
53. Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
54. Man Raze – Surreal (2008)
55. B-Sides (2021)
56. Yeah! II (2021)
57. Yeah! Live (2021)
58. CMT Crossraods – Taylor Swift & Def Leppard (2009)
59. Down ‘N’ Outz -My ReGeneration (2010)
60. Man Raze – PunkFunkRootsRock (2011)
61. Down ‘N’ Outz -The Further Adventures of… (2014)
62. Def Leppard (2015)
63. The Lost Session (2018)
64. Personal Jesus 7″ Single (2018)
65. Down ‘N’ Outz -This is How We Roll (2019)
66. Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood – Vinyl (2020)
67. Hysteria: Live – Vinyl (2020)
68. Def Leppard Acoustic Vegas – 10″ Vinyl (2020)
69. Down ‘N’ Outz – The Music Box E.P. (2020)
70. Diamond Star Halos (2022)
71. High & Dry – Picture Disc (RSD) (2022)
72. Drastic Symphonies (2023)
73. Drastic Symphonies – Picture Disc (2023)
74. Definitely: The Official Story of Def Leppard (2023)

PREVIOUSLY POSTED:

1. The Def Leppard E.P. (1979/2017)
2. Def Leppard: Interview Picture Disc (1982?)
3. “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” – 12″ Promo Single (1984)
4. Live at the Top (Bootleg) (1987)
5. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” –  5″ Shaped Picture Disc (1987)
6. Hysteria U.S. Tour 1988 – Tour Book (1988)
7. “Make Love Like a Man” – 12″ Single (1992)
8. “Let’s Get Rocked” – 12″ Single (1992)
9. Adrenalize: The 7 Day Weekend Tour (1992/1993)
10. X: World Tour (2003)
11. Mirrorball – Live & More (2011)
12. Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History – Book Review (2011)
13. Viva! Hysteria (2013)
14. And There Will Be A Next Time…Live from Detroit (2017)
15. Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Box Set (2017)
16. The Story So Far – The Best of (2018)
17. The Collection, Volume 1 (2018)
18. Hysteria: The Singles Box Set (2018)
19. Live at Abbey Road Studios (2018)
20. Def Leppard: Concert Review – Charlotte, NC June 9th 2018 (2018)
21. The Story So Far – The Best of Volume 2 (2019)
22. The Collection, Volume 2 (2019)
23. London to Vegas (2020)
24. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 29 March 2019 (2020)
25. The Early Years ’79-’81 (2020)
26. The Collection, Volume 3 (2021)
27. Def Leppard Funko Pop!