In the red corner we have a bunch of young bucks eager to prove their worth and fronted by one of the most charismatic and legendary figures in music. In the blue, a quintessentially English bunch of rockers with a line out forged out of tragedy. Both enter the arena on the backs of their best studio albums in 20 years.

It's the red corner first - Whitesnake hit the packed hall with singer David Coverdale in fine form - if not quite fine voice for the first couple of songs. Classics like Fool For Your Loving and Love Ain't No Stranger and material from latest album Good To Be Bad are rapturously received in equal measures.

Coverdale's young comrades - especially guitarists Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach - bring new vision to three decades of hard rockin'.

With barely a pause, it's the blue corner's time to grab the limelight. With many in the audience wondering just how Def Leppard can possibly top what has just happened, the National Anthem blares across the PA system to a hoisting of the Union flag.

And just as the patriotic are rising to their feet, Def Leppard hit the stage with Rocket, quickly followed by Come On from their latest album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge.

Frontman Joe Elliott leads the line with powerful vocals, with the rest of the band easing through the set with an almost arrogant swagger.

An acoustic segment threatens to pull the rug from under the whole performance, with the audience getting visibly restless, and it takes a mammoth effort to get the party cranked up again with old classics like Pour Some Sugar on Me and Armegeddon It.

They pull it off, but only just.

Greg Nixon