On 31 December 1984, drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on the A57 in the hills outside Sheffield when his Corvette swerved off the road on a sharp bend and went through a drystone wall. Despite the severity of the accident, Rick was committed to continuing his role as Def Leppard's drummer. He practiced drumming with pillows and realized that he could use his legs to do some of the drumming work previously done with his arms.[citation needed] He then worked with Simmons to design a custom electronic drum kit. The other members of the band supported Allen's recovery and never sought a replacement. During this period, Mutt Lange returned as producer, and Allen's triumphant comeback was sealed at the 1986 Donington Monsters of Rock festival with an emotionally charged ovation after his introduction by Joe Elliott.
After over four years of recording, Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria, was released on 3 August 1987. In the UK, the first single from the album, "Animal", reached #6, giving the band their first successful single in their home country. Hysteria immediately topped the charts in its first week of release.
Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums (and the third in rock history) that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: "Women" (#80), "Animal" (#19), "Hysteria" (#10), "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (#2), "Love Bites" (#1), "Armageddon It" (#3), and "Rocket" (#12). It remained on the charts for three years and has sold 18 million copies worldwide. Equally successful was the accompanying Hysteria World Tour, which ran for 15 months and saw Def Leppard perform "In The Round". The concept proved wildly popular with fans, as evidenced in the videos for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Armageddon It" (and was later used again for the Adrenalize tour).
In 1989, Def Leppard won Favorite Heavy Metal Artist, as well as Favorite Heavy Metal Album (for "Hysteria") during the American Music Awards. It was the first time that a heavy metal category was added to the awards show. (The category has since been deleted.) By the end of the decade, although Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, and Bon Jovi had garnered more mainstream exposure, Def Leppard had sold more records than any rock band in the US during the 1980s.
Some people collect baseball cards, I've spent 30 years collecting rare live concert footage, television performances and music videos. When we became full-time RV'ers my wife put her foot down and told me I had to do something with my collection. The result is this website, initially a place where I could enjoy my collection without having to physically access the media, and now a place that everybody can enjoy.
I do not advocate downloading these videos, although I can't stop you. I also encourage everybody to take a look at the artists represented here and go out and purchase the footage for themselves since most of it is available in DVD format.
Make sure you enter the (*) required information where indicated.
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You do not need to put a real email address just something in email format of -@-.com I have no desire to collect email addresses but haven't found a way to switch it off yet.
