Def Leppard – Euphoria Tour – 1999

October 15th 1999 – Birmingham NEC

I hadn’t been to a Def Leppard tour concert since Hysteria in 1987!!! Much as I love Def Leppard, they did a couple of more of the same albums after Hysteria, not bad albums, but “Adranalize” pretty much followed the same formula and “Slang” I didn’t really get at the time….although, I’ve gone back to it and enjoy about half the songs now.

Add to that, they had totally gone for stadium tours or locations nowhere near us, so I hadn’t bothered….but I was ready for a bit more Joe Elliot and the Gang by the time this tour came round to the….errrrr……..NEC!!! Grrrrr!

I’ll put it out there that the support band was called “Lukan” but I have zero recollection of what they may have done, so was either drinking, not there or generally not impressed!

It was a bit of a stripped back gig, no pyros, not much of a stage set, just a huge stage Union Jack back drop and the music kit set up in front of it.

It was also a pretty tame outing by the boys!! Now what Def Leppard do very well, is play class sing song rock and ballads, you can never fault them for effort, ability, tightness or audience participation….but…..this show was lacking something.

I think Joe Elliott was struggling with his voice, so that wouldn’t have helped, But I feel sure he got better as the night went on. Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen were all playing brilliantly as you would expect. Vivian Campbell had replaced Steve Clarke, who died of alcohol poisoning in 1991. He was a superb replacement choice (previously with Dio and Whitesnake)

I think we were all a bit older, crikey, we were all in our mid 30s by now…and the crowd as a whole was pretty much the same or older!! Def Lep just felt a bit old themselves tonight.

The set list was fantastic and they played the music really well. The NEC never does anything to help a band, so if it’s not keeping you occupied, it becomes the vast (waste of) space that it is.

I really love their version of Sweets “Action”, so great to hear that live and the whole of the late part of the show was almost a montage of the old stuff and worked really well. Our air guitars were now in full flow!

As concerts go, this was average, but still a pretty good show…….I’ve been very lucky not to see many duff shows over the years.

Set List

• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
• Action (The Sweet cover)
• Demolition Man
• Women
• Make Love Like a Man
• When Love and Hate Collide
• Hysteria
• Foolin’
• Animal
• Paper Sun
• Slang
• Promises
• Love Bites
• Armageddon It
• Photograph
• Rocket
• Pour Some Sugar on Me
• Rock of Ages
• Encore: Let’s Get Rocked, Let It Go