Review: Def Leppard's 'One Night Only Live at The Leadmill'
I have a lot of Def Leppard live shows – both official and bootleg – spanning the group’s career. Leppard has always been an incredible live band and it has been interesting to hear how the band has changed over the decades and its approach to its set lists for each tour.
Its latest release, “One Night Only Live at The Leadmill,” has quickly become one of my favorite Leppard live recordings.
It actually took the band quite a few years to release its first live album. 1989’s “In the Round, In Your Face” from the Hysteria tour was a VHS release, and the audio wasn’t released separately until the 30th anniversary edition of “Hysteria” (2017 for those bad at the math).
Although live EPs and songs were released in different regions throughout the years, it took until 2011’s “Mirror Ball” for Leppard to have a wide-release stand-alone live record. The double album included a show from the “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” tour plus three new tracks.
To fill the void, I combed the early Internet for bootlegs. Taking a step back, I had several shows on VHS in the early 90s that I transferred to audio cassette. Bootlegs were tough to come by those days – we didn’t have a video/audio recording studio in our pockets. The Internet suddenly made live shows much more accessible – if you knew where to look PYT(pre-YouTube).
Leppard has released several more live albums since 2011. I liked them all and, frankly, wish Leppard had released more of its live shows from over the years. Shows from the band’s history have been seeing the light of day, including superb ones from its first album, “On Through the Night” and from the Pyromania tour.
But “Live at the Leadmill” is something different. As the band’s website explains, “This unique set was from one of the most intimate shows the band has played in the UK or Europe in over 35 years, giving their fans the chance to hear and see the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inducted band up close performing an extraordinary stadium style set in a club setting.”
The band has played clubs before. In fact, it had an EP released in a few regions in 1993, “In the Clubs, In Your Face,” which included four tracks recorded at a club in Bonn, Germany.
There are a few things that sets Leadmill apart.
First, the intimate setting seems to have unleashed a level of energy that can be lacking in the stadiums. The band – known for its high standards and honest live shows – sounds like it’s playing with a renewed vigor. I realize that live albums do have a level of “corrections,” but even considering that, the band noticeably elevated its attack.
Second, the setlist is a bit different from what the band has performed recently. With so many hit songs, it’s hard for the band not to play certain tracks. But with the club setting, it was free to mix things up a little. While it’s not the most diverse live setlist they’ve done – check out the “Viva! Hysteria” album as played many gems including “Good Morning Freedom” as “cover band” Ded Flatbird – it is refreshing to hear.
The band dusted off several tracks that have not made it into rotation consistently, including “Mirror Mirror,” “Wasted,” “Slang,” “Action” and “Too Late for Love.”
It also included two songs from its “Diamond Star Halos” album, “Kick” and “Fire it Up.” In terms of the hits, it played “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
With “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” it also played the instrumental “Switch 625,” which mirrors the “High N Dry” album sequence. I never tire of “Switch 625” and think it’s one of Leppard’s best songs, period (written by the never-forgotten Steve Clark). I’ll never forget losing my mind in 1996 when the band reintroduced it into their live set during the “Slang” tour. It’s come and gone since but it was included in this past summer’s stadium tour.
The album’s version of “Hysteria” could be my favorite on any live record. The band has tinkered with different live versions of the song throughout the decades, trying different beginnings and endings. At Leadmill, the song breaks down near the end to the driving beat of Rick Savage’s bass, with Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell’s adding in a distorted version of the signature guitar line after a few measures.
It just sounds great and breathed new life into a song I probably have 30 different live versions of. If they played it this way before, I don’t remember it.
Joe Elliott sounds excellent, with a little less of the strained higher notes his aging voice has delivered recently. Don’t get me wrong, Joe always puts on a good show, but he can’t necessarily pull off the screaming vocals he could 40 years ago. He smartly sang some parts in his lower register, which were not traditionally done so.
Put all together, “One Night Only Live at The Leadmill” was a welcome surprise. The CD also comes with a DVD or Blu-Ray of the show, making for a solid overall package. I’d still appreciate more shows from the band’s past, but if it’s going to be a recent show, I’m glad they picked something with a bit more uniqueness.