Tag: When The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Def Leppard – ‘When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26, 1980)’ (2020) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic96 Comments

Def Leppard never wanted to release live albums. At least that is what I remember them saying years and years ago. Was it something like “a band only releases live albums when they’ve run out of ideas”. Don’t quote me on that, that is something I swear I heard them say a very long time ago. And for 31 years, Def Leppard never officially released a live album. A live video, yes. But never an album until around 2011 with ‘Mirrorball’. And it would be another 9 years before we ever got a live show from their Early Years! But thanks to the box set ‘The Early Years’, we finally had a live show from 1980. It doesn’t get much earlier than that for them. It was recorded at New Theatre in Oxford on April 26, 1980. The show is completely unedited and as is (so they say) and I would believe it.

But it wasn’t my first early show of Def Leppard. I have a bootleg from a show at BBC’s Paris Theatre, London, England, 22nd August 1979 and some recorded at the Reading Festival, Reading, England, 24th August 1980 and it was called “Live at the Top”. That was my first taste of early Lep and what a taste it was. This show is even better and sees a hungry, raw Def Leppard giving it their all. There are four historical pieces on here as we get a liver version of Good Morning Freedom which the band had never released, an early version of Lady Strange from an album that hadn’t come out yet and two songs that would wind up completely different when they were finally released on two different albums. The show was first released in that box set, then they decided to release a vinyl of the show as well which I have both versions as you can see in the last picture.

Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26, 1980)’ (2020) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)” →

Def Leppard – ‘The Early Years 78-81’ Box Set – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic83 Comments

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the bands debut album, Def Leppard put together quite an impressive box set.  The debut album was ‘On Through the Night’ which arrived in 1980.  The band didn’t stop with that album to commemorate, they decided to cover the 4 years of major transition from the band.  They are gong back to their humble beginnings of 1978 and up through 1981 and the album ‘High & Dry”. The last album  before the band blew up in to major Rock Star status.  And man they were huge.

IMG_1922

This set is 5 CDs.  And they consist of the following:

  1. ‘On Through the Night’ (Remastered)
  2. ‘High ‘N Dry’ (Remastered)
  3. When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (Live at the New Theatre, Oxford – 1980)
  4. Too Many Jitterbugs (Rare and bonus tracks)
  5. Raw (Early BBC Recordings)

IMG_1923

It is over 4 1/2 hours of music.  And believe it or not, there are some things on here I did not have which is why I bought the whole set.  The packaging is pretty sweet.  The box it comes in looks like a box to hold a collection of 45’s and the front and back covers even show the wear of records being included which is a nice touch. The CD’s themselves come in a tri-fold cardboard folder that is pretty durable and it looks like this… Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘The Early Years 78-81’ Box Set – Album Review” →

Def Leppard – ‘Live at the Top’ (Bootleg) – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic95 Comments

I have been looking for Def Leppard bootlegs since I got back in to collecting. I have found Kiss, Whitesnake, GNR, but hadn’t found a Leppard one until now.  The first thing that caught my attention was that cover.  Love it.  So bright, so detailed, just beautiful.  A lot of work went into that cover and I find that odd for a bootleg since most I find just slap a picture of the band on the cover that isn’t even from that era of the recording.

Well, they did that hear as well as the back cover is a picture of Joe Elliott from around 1987…which is when this was released.  The problem is that the recordings are not from that year.

IMG_1726

When was it recorded?  I am so glad you asked.

A1 to B1 recorded at the BBC’s Paris Theatre, London, England, 22nd August 1979.
B2 to B6 recorded at the Reading Festival, Reading, England, 24th August 1980.

“On Through the Night’ came out in March 1980, so the first side of this was recorded prior to that album coming out which all these songs are on.  Their first EP had come out in January 1979 which “Overture” and “Rocks Off” were from that one only at the time as they would be released on the debut as well.

Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘Live at the Top’ (Bootleg) – Album Review” →