This week on The Collection, we are talking Def Leppard and specifically, Def Leppard on Cassette. We go through every single album that has been released on Cassette, what I’m missing and what was never released on cassette. From ‘On Through the Night’ to ‘Drastic Symphonies’ let’s walk through the Def Leppard Cassette Catalog.
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At one time in their career, Def Leppard made a statement that a band only releases a live album when they have run out of ideas. I’m not sure the actual count, but we are on maybe the fifth or sixth live album they’ve released now. And based on ‘Drastic Symphonies, I would say they are out of new ideas. With that aside, I’m still a massive fan and buy everything. In fact, back in April 2024 for Record Store Day, I got in line to get the very limited vinyl release of ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill’ which was a Record Store Day First (not exlcusive) release and limited to only 6,000 copies. And I was able to grab one.
That is what we are reviewing today. It came in a beautiful gatefold with a great live shot of the band at the club and is on 2LP’s of a cool silver cover that coincides with the album cover. The LPs are housed in a thick cardboard like sleeve with some great pictures of the band members taken at the show. They later released it on October 11, 2024 in CD format that either had a DVD or a Blu-Ray included. And, I have the CD/Blu Ray combo as well as I like to have at every format (I know I didn’t get the DVD but the Blu Ray is better visually so that is all I need).
If you read my site, you know Def Leppard is one of my all-time favorite bands, if not the #1 band on my list. And for that, this list was extremely hard for me to do, yet easy as well. I will already go ahead and say it, there is not a horrible album in this bunch only some I like more than others and yet a few that are absolute no-brainers as the top choices. And yes, I am biased.
Speaking of top choices, my Top 5 is my Top 5 because each album is completely different. The band completely changed up the sound and style on each of these albums and when the band does that, for me they hit it out of the park.
From the very beginning in 1980 with their debut and all the way up to today, the band has been mainstay in my musical journey. In 2019, they were inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and all I can say is it is about damn time!!! They received the highest public vote so I am not the only one that things these guys from England are pretty darn great. And their last studio album was 2023’s ‘Drastic Symphonies’…so they are still going strong…sort of.
So, let’s get to it. Here is my favorite Def Leppard albums from the worst one to the very best. I hope you enjoy it.
WORST – DRASTIC SYMPHONIES (2023)
This album is basically dreadful with some shining moments. There are only 6 tracks worth listening to in my opinion and the rest was waste of time. They did at least experiment with a few tracks, although some were so bad they hurt, at least they tried. The problem was they should’ve “Tried” on all the songs rather then simply add orchestration to a lot of the original tracks. That is laziness. Keep “Turn to Dust”, “Paper Sun”, “Hysteria”, “Too Late For Love” and “King of the World”, skip the rest.
In 2020, Def Leppard released a really cool box set called London to Vegas. It had 2 shows, one from the 02 in London where they played the entire Hysteria album live and the other called ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ where Def Leppard did another residency. The set had CDs for the shows as well as Blu Ray (or DVD) so you could watch it too. But that wasn’t all. They also released the albums individually and I bought each one as well, but this time on Vinyl.
This thing is impressive folks. You get 28 songs and they are full of deep cuts as well as the classics. This show is 2 1/2 hours long…2 1/2 hours…you heard that correctly. Now the actual show was about 4 songs less so you know they added a few songs from other shows to give you most, if not all the songs they played. The set is a 3 LP set in a beautiful gatefold packaging that include 3 beautiful transparent blue vinyl. They are really nice. However, since the cover has the U.S. flag on it and being 3 LP’s…wouldn’t a red, white & blue have been even cooler!? The answer is yes.
In a nutshell, the show was fantastic. Joe as you know is not as spot on with the vocals as when he was younger and that is not a problem here as the band does assist heavily with the harmonies and background vocals to help smooth that out. I would say after a couple songs, you don’t even notice and you just enjoy the show. I mean by the end, I thought everyone sounded great. It was very enjoyable.
The compilations are coming fast and furious. First we had the UK greatest hits compilation called ‘Best of Def Leppard’ which came in a 1 CD and a 2 CD version. The U.S. did not get that release. Instead, about 6 months later, the States got a slightly different collection called ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’. This was released May 17, 2005 about 7 months later and went to #10 on the Billboard 200 chart selling over 1 million copies in the States alone. Canada bought about 200,000. So, it did well.
How does this one differ from “Best of”? Not by a whole lot. The biggest, noticeable difference is the artwork is really spruced up and more vibrant with the Union Jack used as background. Some of the pictures are the same and the liner notes I think are identical. This time, Disc 1 is identical to ‘Vault’ with the only change adding 2 songs. Disc 2 is pretty close to the same as well. There is a different New song. Instead of the cover of The Kink’s “Waterloo Sunset”, we get a Badfinger cover of “No Matter What”. We do get 18 tracks on Disc 2 instead of 17 with “Paper Sun” and “Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes” being different. The dropped “Make Love Like A Man”, thankfully. And lastly, the track order is shaken up on Disc 2 as well. Let’s be realistic, they aren’t that different.
DISC 1:
The album opens with the biggest song of their career, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. It was the third single off ‘Hysteria’ in the UK, but the fourth in the States. And it was do or die time for the band. They need to sell way more and this song did it for them. Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. This is the ‘Historia’ Video Edit version which opens with “Love is a like a Bomb” and is actually longer then the album version.
Then with no mercy, we get “Photograph”. First…the song is NOT about Marilyn Monroe. The song is about an obsession with a woman and all you have of her is that photograph. The Marilyn Monroe part was added for the video to help tell the story. And it captures it perfectly. As the video shows that obsession going a little too far. The song was perfect in my book and the video was mesmerizing. The two together captured my attention like nothing ever had before and every time MTV showed, I turned up the volume!
Up to this point, Def Leppard really only had 1 greatest hits album and that was 1995’s ‘Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995’. Since that last compilation, they have released a couple more albums so it was time to update the Greatest Hits package and this time it is called ‘Best of Def Leppard’, easy enough. There is a single disc version which is basically the same tracks as the ‘Vault’. Well, close enough. They did remove two tracks and add two more recent ones then they added two more tracks on that one to give us 17 tracks instead of 15. And I am okay with the choices they made.
There is also a 2 CD set which is what I have. It came with a slip case (my copy doesn’t have that piece) and a second disc with more of a diverse selection. While the first mostly ignores the first albums (exception being “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”), this adds a few more tracks plus gives us more of the newer albums. And even better a new song…well new to Def Leppard as it is a cover of The Kink’s song “Waterloo Sunset”. This was a preview of what was to come with the band’s next studio album ‘Yeah!’ which is a covers album. I like that second disc since it is the usual Leppard standards.
The CD came out on October 25, 2004 and it did sell 300,000 copies in the UK and went to #6 on the albums chart. It charted in other countries as well, but it didn’t chart in the U.S. as it was not officially released here in the States. That would come the next year with a new compilation called ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’ which we will review next week. Now, since this set is 34 songs over 2 CDs, this review could take awhile. I’ll get started.
DISC 1:
The album opens with the biggest song of their career, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. It was the third single off ‘Hysteria’ in the UK, but the fourth in the States. And it was do or die time for the band. They need to sell way more and this song did it for them. Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. This is the ‘Historia’ Video Edit version which opens with “Love is a like a Bomb” and is actually longer then the album version.
Def Leppard toured extensively for their latest album, ‘Euphoria’, which came out June 8, 1999. That tour brought them to Japan where they played 8 shows, three of which were at Tokyo’s famed Kokusai Forum where this disc was recorded. It is said that this was the October 1st show. However, the bootleggers have it wrong. The band only played “Wasted” on the October 2nd show which was actually recorded in full and broadcast on the radio and it was actually filmed to be shown on TV as well. Why we don’t have an official release of this show from the band is strange. We do have a few songs that from this show that were released on The Collection, Volume 2 Box Set on the Rarities 3 LP from that set.
As with most bootlegs, this CD has one glaring mistake. Look at the picture below and see if you can spot it. And no, it isn’t the fact the picture is with some of the members of Journey. Nope. It is the fact that the picture has the late, great Steve Clark in it who died back in 1991 a full 8 years prior to this release. He isn’t even on this release so shouldn’t have a picture. The bootleggers, however, seem to get all the song titles right and even the spelling. That is pretty rare! Now, that is all I have on this release so let’s get to the show which is the full set list with 22 songs and almost 2 hours worth of music spread over 2 CDs…it is awesome. And one cool thing is they play at least one song from every Leppard album released to date. Good job boys…good job!
The album opens with “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” which is played at 100 mph as the band seems to be in a hurry to get through it. The band sounds fantastic though, guitars are crisp, drums are powerful and Joe sounds terrific. Always a great opener. And they don’t slow things down as they rip through the Sweet cover of “Action” and I do love Lep’s version of this one. They made it their own. A high energy romp that keeps the pace at breakneck speed. They go in to the first new song and play “Demolition Man” and talk about fast…holy crap I think they sped it up the tempo even more. It is bam bam, next song, bam bam, next song…you get the idea. The new song fits well into the vibe of the live setting. I dig it.
I know, we’ve been doing a lot of Def Leppard Bootlegs from the Slang era, well, I do have a lot from that time. So bare with me for one more item. This time though, it is a Bootleg DVD so we get to actually the boys playing. This one was filmed down in Argentina back in 1997 and was actually recorded and played on Canada’s MuchMusic. How do I know that? Well, in the top left hand corner of the screen throughout the show is their logo. Yes, someone videotaped the show off their television and later transferred it to DVD.
When I googled the show, AI had this to say about it…Def Leppard performed at Cine Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 19, 1997, marking their first show in the city and country. The venue is located near the coast and east of the city center, and was built in an Art Deco style in July 1937...Couldn’t have said it better myself. If I’m not mistaken, the song “Photograph” from the show was not shown during the broadcast and sadly, as a result, that isn’t here on this DVD either. Heck, what did you expect, he/she recorded it straight from the broadcast.
The band at the time and still today is still Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. And they are all in fine form for this show. The setlist is basically identical to the Montreal Show I reviewed a couple weeks ago. The big differences being the Montreal Show had “Photograph”, “Another Hit & Run” as well as “Miss You In a Heartbeat” sung by Phil Collen. The Argentina show doesn’t “Photograph” but it does have, “Action” (which is great) and “Make Love Like a Man” (which is a horrible song). The DVD also has “When Love & Hate Collide” instead of “Miss You In a Heartbeat”, but I think I like Phil Singing “Miss You…” better. Everything else is spot on in same order as well.
Sometimes, when you buy a bootleg CD you have no idea what you are buying. This is one of those cases. I couldn’t find anything about the release other than the front cover. All it said was “Def Leppard – Live Bites” and it listed out a handful of classic Leppard songs. And it was cheap. Those two things were all I had to go on, so I bought it.
When I received the CD in the mail, It didn’t offer much else to it either. It did have a full track listing, but it was only 11 songs and from the looks of it, not a full live show…only pieces. There were two songs from ‘Slang’ and nothing later that told me it was from around 1997 at the very least. There was nothing in the booklet…ha! booklet…one sheet of paper…so not really a booklet…that gave me any indication of where these songs were recorded. The back of the CD had something that said the following…
Having sold over 65 million albums worldwide since their debut release in 1980 and proved themselves as one of rock music’s hardest working and consistently powerful live bands, Def Leppard remain one of only five rock groups who can claim two separate original 10 million-plus selling albums.
The band’s first show in this beautiful city since August 1992 for the Adrenalize Tour sees them at the Centre Molson in Montreal, Canada on September 15, 1996. A tour that ran from May 9th, 1996 through to April 27th, 1997 in support of their new album, at the time, ‘Slang’. No more ‘In the Round’, the band played on the traditional end stage set-up, but instead of 20,000 people, the place held anywhere from 5,000-9,000 people. No more massive shows, they were no doing a straight up rock show with less lights and less everything. A pure rock & roll show.
This show was broadcast on the radio in Montreal and southern Canada as well as across the U.S. And what we have here is a wonderful bootleg of that show across 2 CDs. A fun fact, a month later on October 23, 1996, the band would enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first band to play on three continents in a 24 hour period. That has nothing to do with this release, but figured why not throw that in for good measure. Back to the bootleg, this one sounds fantastic, there appear to be no errors in the track listing as far the titles are right, and the pictures are even of the era of the band. Finally, a bootleg with no mistakes.
Well, it was completely devoice of mistakes actually, the opening track “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” actually fades in part way through the song. I am guessing someone forgot to hit “record” on the tape deck. Otherwise, the only issue. The song sounds great, but man, they are playing it at warp speed. They then go into a track from ‘High & Dry’ that doesn’t get played enough, “Another Hit And Run”. The guitar work is sensational on this one and has a great solo. Then we get “Animal” and then the ballad “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” which for me is one of the better songs on ‘Adrenalize’.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 