The original inner sleeve of Def Leppard’s
“Hysteria” album presents a cinematic collage of sound, memory, and triumph. A large monochrome photograph stretches across the lower half, showing the band performing live before an immense sea of fans — thousands packed shoulder to shoulder beneath a sunlit sky. The stage is lined with cables, amplifiers, and protective plastic sheeting, capturing a moment of pure 1980s arena rock grandeur. From left to right, the band members command the stage, their silhouettes framed by smoke and sunlight.
Above the image, printed in black serif text, are the inner sleeve liner notes — a personal letter from the band reflecting on the years 1984 to 1987. The text recounts both their creative process and their perseverance through setbacks, providing a behind-the-scenes look at how Hysteria came to life. The narrative is conversational, almost intimate, revealing the exhaustion, pride, and humor that marked the journey.
The lower section reads: “LIFE AT THE TOP with DEF LEPPARD 1984–87”, positioned above the red and yellow Def Leppard triangle logo. This visual and textual balance between reflection and performance perfectly embodies the spirit of the album — both a record of endurance and a celebration of success.
Transcribed Text:
Originally this space was going to be a brief summary of what we have been doing for the last 4 years. Believe it or not, we have been working. We were going to tell you about living and recording in Dublin and Hilversum. We’d thought of describing the misadventures we’ve had with automobiles. We figured you might have wanted to know about our problems in the studio (we have scrapped the first 18 months of recording the whole album). We have discussed song lyrics, the band’s image on video, the number of tours we booked and cancelled, the money we spent on studios and tuning targets or our attempts at producing the record ourselves.
On the lighter side, we thought about briefing you on the freak kolathum which destroyed damage to Phil’s car, or the series of T-shirts we made up in answer to the questions we were getting, or Joe’s bash which is probably rotating over a grey sky somewhere in Holland. We then remembered we started in Paris in August 1985 thinking that we would be on the road around that time.
But, on the positive side, we could hardly brought up the pride we all felt in playing live in August 1986, especially as we figured we could make it a free, piece, for the fact that this album has 60 minutes or so of music which like it, even for the fact that we will all spend after 4 years of being together.
In all honesty the total story that seemed pretty endless and boring will be spread through all interviews. 4 years is a long time; how interested could anyone be in stories of tape and loss change, ups and downs, new studio, new bandmates, new themes, new songs, new narrowing our scope to getting it particular moment and what reflected the highs, the ups, the downs, the swings, the roundabouts, the time, the energy, the catch which went into the experience, was the making of this album. Besides at rest we could think of any way to make this sound as boring as that is.
So, we asked everybody in the operation to come up with one wonderful, fulfilling, rewarding moment in our post-Pyromania past which would give anyone who reads this the flavor of life with Def Leppard.
Sheffield, England. 14-track machine. As we all remember, one particular incident where we had little choice (especially after two whole weeks): it was our last show of the year & we played in August 1986. At important time for us, as mentioned above. Manchester was specially important as it was, that night, the largest crowd we had ever played in front of in the U.K. and also the very show where our 5th member Rick Allen made his return. Between the rehearsals and odd talk shows and live play, live we had been playing together and what can we say, it has become the ULTIMATE WINNER.
Well, what can we say. Life in a rock band isn’t all fun all the time. What happened that day wasn’t under our control, but it certainly does say a lot about our recent history.
