The ratios would, of course, change as " Pour Some Sugar on Me" rocket-fueled Hysteria's performance and made Def Leppard shows a hot ticket during 1988 in Europe and North America. The group nevertheless powered through 15 songs, including five from Hysteria and seven from its predecessor, 1983's multi-platinum Pyromania - but nothing from the group's 1980 debut, On Through the Night. Some 5,786 fans turned up in the 7,500-capacity arena. Hysteria endured sluggish performance out of the box so the concert was not sold out, like many of their first-leg shows. It's just the fact they hid it really, really well."Īll of that was what lay ahead on that first night in Glens Falls. All the bands, Metallica, Motley Crue, think they're so tough. "There would be 60 naked girls, and I mean nothing on. "Under the stage, it would be like Sodom and Gomorrah," photographer Ross Halfin said in VH1's " Behind the Music" episode on Def Leppard. Collen, Clark and Savage would then retire to below deck, where a party was raging with women who were invited by crew members into the netherworld - if they were willing to disrobe. Part of Def Leppard's schtick was a 20-minute section of "Rock of Ages" during which Allen would be playing while Elliott hyped the crowds through a call-and-response of the " What do you want? / I want rock 'n' roll" refrain. The under-stage area, meanwhile, became something of a bacchanal as the tour went on. ![]() Watch Def Leppard Perform 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' "We played extra hard that night, knowing that Robert Plant was watching us," Collen wrote. In his memoir, Collen recalls that Robert Plant came to check out one of the Chicago concerts in 1988 and volunteered to wheel Collen and Savage's cart that night. Allen, who had to warm up before the show, would walk through the crowd in disguise, including a fake left arm holding a beer. The band members would get into them backstage - Elliott and Clark in one, Collen and Savage in another - and be wheeled to the under-stage area past unsuspecting fans. The solution was oversized laundry-style carts that Def Leppard's crew would use to move gear belonging to opening acts Tesla and Queensryche off stage. The center-arena staging created one major logistical problem: how to get the band to the stage. The kit had wowed European audiences and his bandmates, and would be a focal point for the Hysteria shows in the U.S. He had taught himself to play on a hybrid drum kit that allowed him to trigger sounds via electronics that would have been created with his left arm with his left foot instead. It was also the first chance for North American audiences to see the new model Allen in action after losing his left arm in a car crash on New Year's Eve 1984. We're really learning how to pace ourselves and not feel like, 'I have to be over there. So the first few shows we were trying to fill the stage too much. ![]() "We'd never done anything like that before. But working into the new stage wasn't just press-and-play: "It took a minute for us to get used to the set-up," Elliott acknowledged back in 1987. and Ireland, and three European festival dates back in June before Hysteria's release. The group came to Glens Falls for eight days of rehearsals, following 17 shows at smaller venues in the U.K. "It also had a very uncluttered look and feel to it, because all of the guitar techs worked underneath the stage, and all of the guitar amps were also located offstage." The lighting rig, according to MacMahon, "featured many movable parts and lasers that had never been used for concerts before." "It truly was state-of-the-art," MacMahon said in Collen's book. The Hysteria album art was painted on the floor of the stage, while the band emerged at the start of the show from behind a four-sided curtain, also featuring the album art, which disappeared cyclone-like as they kicked into "Stagefright." The stage was designed by Def Leppard lighting director Phay MacMahon, incorporating a massive rig above the stage that included lasers, a rotating and rising drum riser for Rick Allen and a network of ramps and slopes for Elliot, Collen, guitarist Steve Clark and bassist Rick Savage to navigate. "Everyone does it nowadays, but back then it was a novel thing." The setup "made for a spectacular show once we got the feel for it – and it totally affected how we were as performers," guitarist Phil Collen added in his 2015 memoir Adrenalized: Life, Def Leppard and Beyond. I think it's great for the band and for the fans." You have people all around you, screaming from every direction. "It's like you have four front rows to play to. ![]() "It's a totally different way to play the show," singer Joe Elliott told this writer a few weeks into the tour.
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