August 18, 1992
Def Leppard in Montreal, Quebec Canada
"I was so excited to see my all time favourite band in concert. I had my front row ticket already, but there was only one thing left to make it better… trying to meet the band.
My two friends and I knew that they were staying at the Four Season Hotel and we decided to get there the night before the show, to see them checking in. It was a beautiful night and perfect temperature also. I was really excited and nervous at the same time. There was a couple of other people there as well, and we started to talk to the other ones. At one point, I see Vivian Campbell coming out of the hotel. He was by himself. We approached him really nicely, nobody was over excited to jump him or anything like that. We asked him to take pictures and he didn’t have a problem with this. It was still hard for me to take Vivian as full part of the band, seeing that for me, Steve was suppose to be there, but he left us the year before and there was nothing we could do about it.
I have to admit, since meeting Vivian that night, I changed my mind about him and he is really nice and sweet and took time to signed for everybody and took pictures as well.
The second to come out was Rick Savage with Malvin. I was so excited, as Sav was always my all time favourite. Unfortunately, he didn’t come out like Vivian did, he just jumped in the Taxi cab with Malvin and they left. I just had the time to take one picture of Rick.
Then, Phil came out to talk with the fans. He stayed for a good 30 minutes with us talking about the show, and all kinds of neat stuff. He also signed for everybody and took pictures with everybody as well. He was so sweet and one thing that will always stick in my mind was the fact that they didn’t need any security guard to come out and talk to the fans. Most of the bands would never come out of the hotel to meet their fans, but they did.
Then, Rick Allen was the last one that night that came out and like Phil, took his time to talk to the fans, signed autographs and also take pictures.
August 19, 2002
The day of the concert……
I decided to take the day off at work and spend it at the hotel until the time of the concert. It was another nice day, great weather….. This time, I brought my Def Leppard jean jacket to get them to sign it.
The first one to come out of the hotel was Vivian again. Like the night before, he stopped and talked to the fans. Again, we took pictures of him.
Then, Phil and Rick Allen came out together, and spent another 30 minutes with us. It was heaven…. My two friends had drawn a nice picture of the band and wanted to give it to one of the guys, and we decided that Phil would be the perfect of all to give him the frame. He was really impressed with the drawing and thanked my friend Luisa for it. We took more pictures together and talked about the concert and what we could look for. Then, we went over and talked with Rick Allen. He was as sweet as the night before and even knew we had met him the night before, he didn’t mind us talking to him and again and taking more pictures with him.
Closer to the time of the concert, the band was ready to leave. Phil and Rick Allen took a cab on their own, and on the other one, was Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell and Joe Elliott. We all ran to that taxi cab as we didn’t have the chance to meet either Rick Savage or Joe Elliott, so I wanted to have at least a picture of them. When we were next to the cab, they were signing for other people and I decided to put my arm inside the cab to have Rick Allen signed my jacket as well as Joe Elliott. I know it sounded stupid, but hey, what were the chances of meeting Def Leppard and to get their autographs??????
But at least, I can say that I was able to meet them and I thank them to be themselves and to acknowledge their fans."
Sandra
