The History of Def Leppard's Debut Album, 'On Through the Night'
When Def Leppard unveiled their debut album, On Through the Night, on March 14, 1980, they were already being touted among the most promising bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. But the precocious quintet had bigger plans beyond their homeland’s limited metal consumer base, and their sights were set squarely on making it in the musical promised land known as America.
Pretty ambitious, you might say, for a bunch of working class lads raised within spitting distance of the Sheffield steel mills. But then singer Joe Elliott guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen were also children of ‘70s classic rock and the dazzling British glam movement, in particular. As kids, they’d been visited by technicolor aliens with names like David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Roxy Music and Mott The Hoople — all of whom suggested it was possible to escape...
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