DEF LEPPARD's First-Ever Live Album, 'Mirror Ball - Live & More', Certified Gold In U.S.

October 12, 2018

Mailboat Records president Harold Sulman presented DEF LEPPARD with a plaque to commemorate sales of over 500,000 copies of "Mirror Ball - Live & More", the band's first-ever live album. The presentation took place before the second of DEF LEPPARD's two sold-out concerts with JOURNEY at the Forum in Inglewood, California on October 7. The Sunday night concert was also the final date of DEF LEPPARD and JOURNEY's co-headlining 2018 North American tour, which kicked off May 21 and played to more than a million fans.

Released in 2011, "Mirror Ball" included a 50-minute DVD that contained live performances and intimate backstage footage of the band captured on the road. A special limited vinyl edition was also made available.

"Mirror Ball" featured a mix of live DEF LEPPARD classics (recorded throughout the "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge" tour),three brand new studio songs and the aforementioned bonus DVD. "Mirror Ball" featured rock classics such as "Animal", "Pour Some Sugar On Me", "Photograph", "Nine Lives" and "Rock Of Ages". The album also brought together three brand new studio tracks — "Undefeated", "Kings Of The World" and "It's All About Believin'" — taking their place with ease within this classic setlist.

"When we decided to do [the live album], it just got said, I don't know by who, 'Why don't we chuck a couple of new songs on the end?' " frontman Joe Elliott told Billboard. "And that two became three, and in fairness it could've been four if we'd just had a little bit more time."

Elliott composed "Undefeated", which he described to Billboard as "a very QUEEN-type vocal thing. It even features piano and stuff." Guitarist Phil Collen's "It's All About Believin'" was "a pop-rock song," while bassist Rick Savage's "Kings Of The World" was "a big, epic, rock anthem — kind of 'We Will Rock You' with guitars, if you like."

"They're all very different to each other," Elliott added. "They don't sound specifically like any previous DEF LEPPARD songs, but they sound like DEF LEPPARD songs. They have to have our identity on them, otherwise they might as well be Tom Waits or R.E.M. We have a signature sound that we're not scared of anymore."

Pictured left to right in photo above: Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Mailboat Records' Harold Sulman, Joe Elliott, Vivian Campbell, Rick Savage

Photo credit: Kevin Nixon

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