Def Leppard's remarkable rise to fame, from steelworks to platinum records, which began with a missed bus
They are one of the biggest bands in history, but it all began in the humblest fashion with a missed bus in Sheffield.
Who knows what would have happened had an 18-year-old Joe Elliott caught his bus that autumn afternoon in 1977 and not ended up walking home.
It was on his walk home that he got talking to a 19-year-old Pete Willis and asked if he could join his newly formed band, Atomic Mass, which also included drummer Tony Kenning and bassist Rick Savage, and at the time performed covers by the likes of Queen, Slade and Deep Purple.
That band would become Def Leppard, who would go on to record two of the biggest rock albums ever and become one of the best-selling acts of all time, having shifted more than 100 million records and counting.
Rick Savage, the band’s bassist and co-founder, attended Tapton School as a boy. He could have been a runner or a footballer, with the Sheffield Wednesday fan having been an apprentice with Sheffield United, but thankfully he chose music.
School days and early job in steel factory
Joe Elliott went to King Edward VII School, which is where he came up with the name Deaf Leopard, which was later deliberately misspelled after the band was formed.
The Sheffield United fan worked at the Osborne-Mushett Tools steel factory in Sheffield from the age of 15 to 19, when he was reportedly sacked for playing cricket in the basement and breaking a window.
His time there wasn’t completely wasted as it was in the factory basement that he is said to have written most of the lyrics for Def Leppard’s first album, On Through the Night.
Elliott initially wanted to be the band’s guitarist, but with that role filled he instead auditioned to be the lead singer, despite never having sung outside the shower.
The group’s first rehearsal took place in a spare room at a Sheffield cutlery factory. Elliott was asked to sing Suffragette City, by David Bowie, and did enough to impress the others. Elliott said of his singing, "I learned as I went along."
Elliott and Savage have told how they spent most of their time outside of their day jobs hanging out and rehearsing at Portland Works, on Randall Street, near Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane stadium.
First gigs at school and cutlery factory
There is some confusion about where Def Leppard played their first gig.
It’s long been understood that it was at Westfield School, in Mosborough, where they performed on July 18, 1978, for the princely sum of £5, smuggling in beer in Tony Kenning’s drum kit.
But Savage and Elliott have said their first gig actually took place before a smaller audience of friends at Portland Works, where they perfomed the four or five songs they had at the time and called it ‘brilliant fun’.
Def Leppard also performed memorable gigs at Crookes Social Club, on Mulehouse Road, where there is a plaque, and at The Limit, a legendary lost nightclub on West Street, where they played for free on the same bill as The Human League on September 11, 1978, in what was Def Leppard’s third ever show.
Long road to success
Def Leppard today consist of Elliott, Savage and Dronfield-born drummer Rick Allen, who is the only other member to have played on all their albums, plus guitarists Phil Collen, who replaced Pete Willis in 1982, and Vivian Campbell, who was brought in following the sad death of Steve Clark in 1991.
Global success didn’t come immediately. Their first album, On Through the Night, released in 1980, reached the top 15 in the UK, while their follow-up, High ‘n’ Dry, made the top 30 in the UK and top 40 in the US.
Their third album Pyromania, featuring hits including Rock of Ages, proved their big breakthrough, reaching number two in the US in 1983.
They backed that up and then some with their fourth album, Hysteria, released in 1987, containing tracks including Love Bites and Pour Some Sugar on Me, which has shifted more than 30 million copies worldwide and remains one of the best-selling albums ever.
With Pyromania and Hysteria, they became the first ever band to sell 7 million or more copies of two consecutive albums in the US, a feat few bands have matched since.
Health challenges
The band have had their challenges over the year, with Allen losing his left arm in a car crash on the A57 near Sheffield in December 1984 but remarkably continuing to play the drums and even pursuing a successful art career.
In 2023, Allen was attacked outside a hotel in Florida during the band’s world tour, while the same year, Elliott was briefly hospitalised with altitude-induced respiratory issues ahead of the band's concert in Bogotá, Colombia.
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In 2016, Def Leppard had to postpone a handful of gigs when Joe Elliott developed a throat condition.
And in 2012, Campbell was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer, but has not let it hold him back from performing.
Where do band members live now?
Elliott grew up in a terraced house on Crookes Road, Broomhill, and now splits his time between Dublin and West Hollywood, while Savage still lives in his native Sheffield, in the pretty suburb of Dore.
They and their bandmates remain the pride of Sheffield and, despite Elliott no longer living here, he has never forgotten his roots.
The singer has described the city as a ‘great place with great people’, and in May 2023, Def Leppard performed a spectacular homecoming gig before around 30,000 delirious fans at Bramall Lane, a few days after playing a much smaller show at the city’s legendary nightclub, The Leadmill.
Along with the likes of Pulp, the Arctic Monkeys, The Human League and many more big bands, they are a huge part of Sheffield’s musical heritage - and, with the band still going strong, and even popping up recently on the hit Netflix film Bank of Dave, a major part of its musical present.