Sheffield City Council

Def Leppard have come a long way since their first rehearsal in a spoon factory in Sheffield’s Bramall Lane in November 1977. Of the current members - Joe Elliott (vocals), Rick Allen (drums), Rick Savage (bass), Phil Collen (guitar) and Viv Campbell (guitar) - only Elliott and Savage have survived from the original line-up.

Their first public gig was at Westfield School in July 1978 for a fee of just £5. They were signed by Phonogram (UK) and Mercury (US) in 1979. Their third album (Pyromania) really took America by storm and sold over 7 million copies, but it was not until 1987 that they hit the jackpot in Britain. ‘Hysteria’ took three years and £1 million to make, but it topped the charts and spawned seven singles. It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide - 12 million of those in the US alone.

The band’s success has not come without a price. On New Year’s Eve 1984 drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm when his car overturned just outside Sheffield (he has since learned to drum one-armed with a specially adapted electronic kit) and in 1991 Steve Clark died after mixing alcohol with pain killers, prescribed to him after breaking three ribs earlier in the year.

In 1999 Def Leppard were one of the inaugural recipients of the newly-launched Diamond Awards in the USA - devised for artistes that have sold over 10 million records in the US. Only 45 artists have achieved this level of success and only eight of those are from the UK, including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Elton John, George Michael, Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees.

The band released a long-awaited covers album in May and are playing a European festival tour in June taking in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Holland and the UK. On 23rd June their North American co-headlining tour with Journey starts a busy summer of shows.