When I was 10 and 11 I was a massive Def Leppard fan. I had Hysteria on tape – free badge that was pinned to my pencil case. I never really cared about the band all that much past that album. I went back to the early stuff, sure. Heard a few other things after, bought the obligatory greatest hits album. And then stopped listening to them. But I went to this show for two reasons – out of the nostalgia that I’m hinting at already. Firstly, I wanted to start doing some interviews as part of my blogging and I’d made contact and been promised an interview with someone from Def Leppard if I went up for the gig. And, secondly, I had a mate in Hawke’s Bay who was very keen to road-trip it.

So I ploughed up in the car from Wellington to Hawke’s Bay. Stayed the night, caught up with my mate, we watched the Spinal Tap and Bad News movies and Wayne’s World.
Talked about some old times and drank ourselves some beers…

And then we were off at 8am that Friday morning. I had a 1pm interview so it was cut fairly fine. Arrived at the hotel at about 12.50pm with the promise of “interviewing one of the members” – no idea until I got there, so it was generic prep, general questions…turned out it was Rick Allen (the drummer) and he was great to speak with, generous with his time. And anyway my questions were better than Juice TV – I watched their interview after. The host actually asked, “if Def Leppard was some kind of animal what animal would it be?” (I can’t remember if he said Dur, Leopard. At least not out loud anyway).

Rick Allen signed my copies of Hysteria and Pyromania. And then I went for a stroll around Auckland. Watched the movie RocknRolla to fill in time, bumped into Rick Allen in the street – gave him a wave and a nod. And then after takeaways we were at the gig. Good gig. Really good gig. I had no expectations but as a band Def Leppard was shit-hot. No complaints. (Solid setlist).

And then we got straight in the truck and drove back to Hawke’s Bay. Stopped in Taupo for a snooze for an hour and back home at about 4.30am. Ridiculous of course.

I wrote up my interview with Allen, the first interview I blogged. It kinda opened the door to do a few more.
Stubs is an occasional feature here at Off The Tracks – looking back through the ticket-stub box and remembering how the show went down.