PACKING out large sheds like Sheffield Arena wasn’t even a dream back in 1977. In fact, some sheds didn’t even exist! Not many bands had the good fortune, or the staying power, to get there. Def Leppard have, and successfully stayed top league players for most of their career, so recent single Rejoice was an apt tune to kick off this latest appearance on home turf. Followed quickly by big hitters Animal and Let’s Get Rocked, after all these years the band still looked and sounded good, apart from the odd sound issue. Putting on strong shows is in their DNA with all the usual stuff getting airplay, plus a nice reworking of the Depeche Mode hit Personal Jesus, complete with heavy guitar riffing from Messers Campbell and Collen.

Words always need mentioning about the real heart of bands and in the engine room we’ve always had bassist Rick Savage, as ever colourfully dressed, plus the back seat Thunder God Rick Allen steering the ship’s groove, especially when crowd favourite Slang kicked in, complete with guest guitarist Nuno Bettencourt from support act Extreme. Nicely dressed in a Union Jack waist coat, he added something special to proceedings. Highlighting this Leppard front man Joe Elliott walked proudly around the arena floor during said song, with an added bonus of including parts of James Brown’s Get Up Offa That Thing. A definite crowd pleaser was this. As was all the rather clever video screens displayed throughout on stage.

Being of a certain vintage, I’ve always liked non hits and choice cuts from various albums, which some bands are reluctant to do for fear of splitting their audience. We’re all Def Leppard fans underneath so maybe this is something to rectify in future years.

As many seasoned musicians will tell, starting a band can be a fool’s game as making a living, keeping everyone happy and aiming for greater things is fraught with difficulties. From the outset, Def Leppard have always been focused, serious and have used their collective smart brains well. Getting to this level and staying there for nearly fifty years wasn’t really on anyone’s radar back in the late seventies as not many bands had done it. Now they have.

Sound issues aside, tonight’s show was almost spot on.

Guest contributor: Roy Goodall