On This Day: Def Leppard Played Their First Concert at a School Dance For Five Pounds

On Tuesday, July 18, 1978, Def Leppard played their first show at Westfield School in their hometown of Sheffield, England. At the time, the band had formed a year earlier with the lineup including vocalist Joe Elliot, bassist Rick Savage, guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis, and drummer Tony Kenning.

Steve Clark Nearly Quit

The show was swiftly booked by a local friend of the band and promoter, Bootleg Bill after Clark threatened to quit Def Leppard if they didn’t play a show soon. Bill booked them at Westfiled where they set up and played in the school cafeteria as part of the end of term dance event

For the gig, the band arrived at the school equipped with beer, which was smuggled in the bass drum. At the end of their set, the band were paid five pounds for their efforts by one of the teachers at the school.

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The Set List

Def Leppard played for around 50 minutes, and their set included an unreleased original song “World Beyond the Sky,” which they opened with, and a cover of Think Lizzy’s 1976 classic “Jailbreak.” Not much is known about the remaining songs in the set. An audience recording of this show exists on cassette, according to the band, but it has not been circulated and the tracklist and quality are unknown.

At the start of the show, Clark’s Marshall amp was left on standby from a previous tuning and had no sound.

“Steve plugged in and walked to the front of the stage, looking brilliant in his tight jeans and long blond hair,” recalled Elliott in the 1987 book The Def Leppard Story: Animal Instinct. “All ready to go into the first song, ‘World Beyond the Sky,’ he did his windmill arm motion, just like Pete Townshend, for the big opening chord and nothing happened. No power. Everybody in the audience was laughing. After a few seconds, we started all over again.”

Return to Westfield

In 1989, Elliott returned to Westfield School for the taping of the BBC TV documentary Rock Of Ages, The Def Leppard Story, and talked about the band’s first gig in the hall where it took place.

The original school building was demolished in 2007 following a fire and later rebuilt as the Westfield Sports College nearly a mile away.

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Of the 1978 lineup of Def Leppard, Clark remained with the band until his death in 1991 at age 30, while Kenning was replaced by Rick Allen later that year when he was just 15 years old. Willis was also replaced by Phil Collen Def Leppard released their breakout 1983 album Pyromania.

Photo: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock