"Living After Midnight" is a rock song by British heavy metal band Judas Priest.[1] It was originally featured on their 1980 album British Steel,[2] which was their first gold album in the United States selling more than 500,000 copies.[3] The song speaks to the hedonistic, rebellious spirit of the 1980s, and is among the band's most popular songs.
On live performances, the line, "I took the city 'bout one a.m.", is sometimes changed to the particular city or venue the band is performing. For example, on the DVDRising in the East, lead vocalist Rob Halford sings, "I took the Budokan 'bout one a.m.", in reference to the stadium in Tokyo, Japan, that hosted the concert. On the Westwood One recordings from the 1983 US Festival Halford recites, "I took some acid about 1 a.m...."
The music video, directed by Julien Temple and shot live at the Sheffield City Hall, begins with drummer Dave Holland playing an invisible drum kit. During the guitar solo, fans on the front row play along with their cardboard guitars (which were the prominent fan symbols of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement).
This song has been covered by The Donnas on their album The Donnas Turn 21 (2001), by Saul Blanch on the tribute album Acero Argentino: Tributo a Judas Priest(2006), by L.A. Guns on Hell Bent Forever: A Tribute to Judas Priest (2008) and by Iron Savior as a bonus track on the Japanese release of their Condition Red(2002) album.
It was recently covered by Disturbed on the Tribute to British Steel (2010) CD by Metal Hammer UK music magazine, incorporating the opening drum salvo from "Painkiller". It also appears as one of the bonus songs available with some distributions of Asylum (2010), and also features on their B-sides compilation album The Lost Children (2011).
The guitar solo in the song is played by Glenn Tipton.