Def Leppard, the Sheffield band behind Hysteria and Pyromania, played a double bill with Extreme at The O2 arena on a UK and European tour.
Def Leppard, the Sheffield band behind Hysteria, played The O2 arena in North Greenwich on Thursday 2 July 2026. Extreme played first on the double bill.
The band began in 1976 at Tapton School in Sheffield, where Rick Savage and two classmates formed a group. Joe Elliott proposed the name Deaf Leopard, and Rick Allen joined as drummer at 15.
High ’n’ Dry, in 1981, produced “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”, one of the first rock videos played on MTV. Pyromania, in 1983, was certified diamond in the US.
On the last day of 1984 Allen lost his left arm in a car accident, and he returned to play on a custom electronic kit. Hysteria, in 1987, topped the charts in Britain and America.
The band have sold more than 110 million albums and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The line-up has been unchanged since Vivian Campbell joined in 1992.
At The O2 they opened with “Rejoice”, their newest single, beneath a pyramid-shaped lighting rig modelled on the Hysteria cover. Elliott introduced a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” as something borrowed, and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” set Phil Collen’s guitar beside Campbell’s.