Def Leppard: The Early Years

 After a bit of break here's a return to times past with gaps filled.

Def Leppard were a Sheffield, England hard rock band I followed across the last years of my formal education from listening in the late evening "under the sheets" to shows that played their music buying their recordings originally on vinyl and then on the at the time new compact disc format some of which weren't issued on cd becoming lost over time and some in other versions.

That's really where this box set originally issued in twenty twenty comes in really as it gathers up the earlier end of the group including the things I heard and no longer have.

Take that debut the "Getcha Rocks Off" ep of early 1980, which helped get them a contract on PolyGram Records (Mercury for North America, Vertigo for UK) for instance, in the early cd era things like that just weren't pressed in that format.

It took a while for the debut album On through the night with such songs as Rock Brigade and Hello America to come out on cd.

The next album High N' Dry did but that followed the form of the 1984 US release that featured remixes of Bringing On The Heartbreak which became a "new" hit all over again and Me And My Wine.

This set restores the original UK release while adding those remixes, that early EP and some early versions which can sit next to my original 1980's cds.

This set adds a number of BBC Radio sessions some transmitted around the world and all heard by me at the time such the sessions done for the late great and much missed Tommy Vance Friday Night Rock Show in October of 1979 and some of their performance from the legendary 1980 Reading Festival they recorded.

Also included is the whole New Theatre, Oxford, England concert from 1980.

The original US High 'N' Dry cd with the two 1984 remixes.

1983's massive selling Pyromania, home to Photograph, Rock Of Ages and Foolin' which was their last album to have a retail 8 track edition in North America.

I nearly wore the grooves out of the lp!

The four year delayed comeback album Hysteria from 1987 which I bought on cd for the first time that featured Animal, Pour Some Sugar On Me,Love Bits and Women which originally only had a single lp version issued which did nothing for sound of that issue given it was just under sixty three minutes long.

That was a big factor in me jumping straight for the cd.

Eventually in 2017, they corrected that error of judgement  with a double album lp format re-issue.