Def Leppard Plan To Release Live Album From 1980 Tour

Bruce Henne | 10-18-2019

(hennemusic) Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has revealed the band are planning to release a live recording from a 1980 tour in support of their debut album, "On Through The Night."

"We thought about this about a year and a half ago," Elliott tells Eddie Trunk on his SIriusXM show Trunk Nation. "And there's gonna be a celebratory release. I don't know how much of this I can say right now. I might be breaking protocol. But I will say this much: there's a companion piece to 'On Through The Night' - there's a brand-new, just-mixed live performance from the Oxford Theatre from 1980, which has never been heard ever.

"It's warts and all," continued the rocker. "It is what it is. It's us live in 1980. We were discussing off-mic about lip-syncing or overdubbing ... You can't expect a 59-year-old me to go in and clean up a 20-year-old vocal. You know what I mean? So, it is what it is.

"But I tell you this much: the band... As I said in the liner notes, when you peer through the curtain of uncertainty that my voice was back in those days, there is a fantastic band onstage. And the two-armed Rick Allen with Sav [bassist Rick Savage] was some rhythm section to come, considering he was 16 years old and Sav was 17, I think - maybe 18. And Pete [Willis] and Steve [Clark] were 17 and 18 years old. It was some band."

Elliott's reference to the live album serving as "a companion piece" to "a celebratory release" of "On Through The Night" suggests Def Leppard may deliver the project as an expanded 40th anniversary reissue in 2020. Read more and watch the video clip here.

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