Def Leppard - Hammersmith Apollo - Sunday 18th June

Damn! A day after we got tickets for this, the Who announced a warm-up at the Brighton Centre. Bit of a dilemma, but we'd paid for these tickets, I've not seen a full Def Leppard show before and I've seen the Who lots of times (and am going next month). So did we make the right choice? 

Having discovered that OSP (bar in Fulham Palace Road) have outrageously stopped doing draft Budwar (orders from the brewery!), we got in fairly early and saw the main support, Cheap Trick. They were good fun - the guitarist changed his guitar after EVERY song (!) and it was surprising how many of the songs were recognisable. I may well be tempted to see them on their own. 

Got down to the front for Def Leppard, a couple of yards back from the barrier, left-speaker. They opened with "Hell Raiser" and continued with a reasonable setlist. unfortunately, bar "Hanging On The Telephone" (which I liked, and the rest of the audience seemed not to), the covers they chose of their latest album ("Yeah!") were the weaker ones IMHO. 

The fairly brief set concluded with the expected hits, Rocket, Animal, Pour Some Sugar etc, but for me there was something lacking. It was all very professional and well played (although Joe's voice sounded a bit ropey in places), but there was a general lack of spark or excitement. All in all, not bad, but given the same choice next time, I'm off to the Who!

Setlist

Hell Raiser

Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)

Let's Get Rocked

Make Love Like a Man

Promises

Hysteria

Let It Go

20th Century Boy

Hanging on the Telephone

Bass Solo

Rock On

Rocket

Photograph

Armageddon It

Animal

Rock of Ages

+

When Love and Hate Collide

Pour Some Sugar on Me