Right To The Top

David Coverdale is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Slide It In with a slew of editions to suit everyone. Rhino are issuing a 6CD version which bulks out the original 1984 UK and US mixes with “unreleased live and studio recordings, music videos, concert footage, and a new interview with founder and lead singer, David Coverdale…” and a book. So you get remixes and alternate versions of every track.
This is entitled The Ultimate Special Edition. If that’s a stretch, then Rhino will also put out a 2LP / 2CD with both mixes, and a single CD of the US mix.
I’ve already bought the record about eight times (including that lovely original Japanese vinyl edition – see below) so might hang fire as the last CD edition from 2009 was more than enough for these ears. I generally only bother with the U.S. mixes anyway. But the hard core can start saving as it comes

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And it pips anything Deep Purple did to mark their 50th!
Thanks to John Tucker for the heads up.

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Snake Box Heroes

David Coverdale is taking Whitesnake out on an American tour in June / July 2018, supporting Foreigner/ It is billed as the Juke Box Heroes Tour, and opens with Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening (a massive jukebox favourite!). Thanks to Lutz Reinert for the news. It’s an extensive tour, the full list of dates is on our 2018 diary page at the bottom:

https://darkerthanblue.wordpress.com/deep-purple-now/deep-purple-co-2018-dates/

The Purple Tour

No not that one, this one! David Coverdale is putting a new live release out to mark The Purple Album tour of a while ago (the studio LP came out in 2015.) Titled simply The Purple Tour, there is the usual array of formats, CD, CD and DVD/Blu Ray, and double vinyl. Looking at the track list it is actually two thirds Whitesnake songs, but what the heck. RS Publishing are also doing a big format limited edition photo book charting the tour to tie in. All due late November. Thanks to Matt Kean and others for the info. In the meantime some folk have been enjoying reading about DC’s relatives and their early career as false teeth makers in York on our Facebook page!
 

Shy (but not retiring)

David Coverdale appears to have backtracked on his early retirement plans; perhaps he’s seen the rubbish interest rates offering on annuities these days! I confess I’d missed the story, so may not have been alone in this. We’ll wait and see how this manifests itself tour / LP wise next year.
Meanwhile Here I Go Again has been targeted by two advertising agencies this last few months. Nescafé in the UK have been playing it under footage of a long-haired young bloke sauntering about, getting a coffee bean shower and doing the hoola hoop at a bus stop.

In America WalMart have gone to town a bit using the song in a more interactive way, using young kids to each sing a line of the song before the real thing slides in underneath to end the short commercial. It is very nicely done.

So, that should be David’s Xmas shopping taken care of! All these cover versions made me hanker for a listen to the real thing, so here they go again in one of the last of the good old days courtesy EMI. Then I got all miserable realising that half this lot are no longer with us…

Shy and retiring?

David Coverdale has suggested that he might be calling time on Whitesnake as we know it in a press release announcing a June best of tour of America. “…what will be our ‘Greatest Hits World Tour’ & most likely my personal ‘Farewell to Arena Rock’ after over 40 years of writing & performing rock music.”
He doesn’t elaborate and clearly the statement leaves doors open but perhaps David is going to try and take a break and give himself options which don’t require his voice to be pushed quite so hard on the road.  There are lots of people who would like to hear him do stuff like the Into The Light and Northwinds albums on-stage in a less frenzied atmosphere (hint hint!).
Meanwhile he and Ian Gillan have spoken to iron out issues over the Hall of Fame event and IG has posted what we assume is the last word on the subject (this week!).

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Statement

February 20, 2016

With respect to all:
We were faced with a hard decision when we heard about the Hall of Fame inductions. It was shocking to us that Steve Morse and Don Airey – who have been with us for 22 years and 14 years respectively – had been excluded, according to HoF ‘rules’.
Ian G. Ian P. and Roger G. – decided upon the offer of a compromise which has been agreed with the HoF and enables us to turn up on the night.
DP Inductees will accept the awards and then the living breathing Deep Purple will perform. Inevitably, this will mean excluding Ritchie, David and Glen from the live performance, but, given the circumstances, there is no other acceptable option.
It should be stressed that there is no slight intended nor any desire to upset anyone regarding this decision; it is purely a mark of respect to Steve and Don. In fact, we would love to perform with Ritchie, David, Glen et al on Smoke on the Water in the encore jam.
I spoke with David Coverdale last week and he expressed complete understanding of the way it was being handled; thanks David you’re a Gent.
Outside of this event there are no circumstances under which a ‘reunion’ could or would take place and so it is unconscionable that our guitarist and keyboard player should be pushed aside after all those years (on the road and six studio albums) of total personal commitment and musical contribution to the band, just to satisfy pressure that has been, in the past, easily resisted.
So, let’s all get up there, shake hands, smile for the cameras and get it done with dignity and respect for all the existing and past members of a very special family.

ig

Thanks to Tom Dixon and Tim Summers

The Glimmer Twins

Lots of pics zooming around the web to confirm Glenn Hughes stepped up to the mic at the Whitesnake Purple Tour show in Beverley Hills this week.  He reportedly sang on at least two of the Purple tracks.  Kind of makes you wonder why they didn’t get it together so the pair could have done the Purple songs in a second half of the set type scenario, which would have been a bit special!  Even the suburst lens flare looks like Mk 3 days…

EPK / VH1 / ETC

At the risk of turning into the Whitesnake fanclub…(though the covers album is one of the most talked about in ages): Eddie Trunk’s VH1 ‘That Metal Show’ interviewed DC via a video link about ‘The Purple Album’. David talked about Jon wanting a “Purple reunion (of sorts)” in his last few years, and also said he discussed covering Rainbow songs (as well as DP and WS ones) with Ritchie during their reunion chats.
In the meantime Whitesnake have posted an EPK online covering the upcoming release, with more snippets from said album.

Alt Purple

Doing promotion for the upcoming Whitesnake Purple album, David has been opening up a little on the recent rapprochement with Ritchie, which throws some more light on the alt Purple reunion.

“After Jon passed away, I felt it necessary to reach out to Ritchie Blackmore to express the grief at Jon’s loss and to hopefully bury any unpleasant hatchets we’d been throwing at other for decades. It was during our reconnect that we discussed the possibility of some kind of a Purple reunion or a ‘Blackmore/Coverdale’ project. During the time we were talking, I started listening to our old albums and began working on ideas and new approaches to suggest rearranging some of our original works. Unfortunately, our ideas on the reunion aspect didn’t quite gel, so I respectfully withdrew from further discussions, though I am happy to say we did bury old animosities and we have thankfully stayed in touch.”

It was Coverdale’s wife Cindy who suggested that he take his ideas and make a new Whitesnake studio album celebrating his legacy from his time with Deep Purple.

“Even though we’re playing songs I recorded with Purple over 40 years ago, it has all the classic Whitesnake elements people who support us have come to expect…” says Coverdale, “I thought it would be cool to go out, as it were, the way I came in to this music business.”

This last sentence has been seen as a possible hint that DC might bow out of live music after the tour.  It could certainly be read that way, but equally might just be a slightly ambiguous transcript from a longer interview; “go out” simply meaning to go on the road.  I guess we’ll see.  [Our post on the Purple Whitesnake album if you need to catch up.]

Anyhow, here’s a bit of a Coverdale related photo courtesy Barry Plummer. See if you know which festival this was taken at, and tell us if you recognise yourself in the front row!  Answer will follow.

Whitesnake – The Purple Album

And lo…  a Whitesnake 2015 (David Coverdale on vocals, Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra on guitars, Michael Devin on bass and Tommy Aldridge on drums) romp through 15 golden oldies from Mk 3 and Mk 4, entitled The Purple Album in May.
It’s hard not to imagine this was inspired by his talks with Blackmore last year, and it will certainly keep the internet chatterboards going for some time. And while the reaction in our in-tray today to the teaser video for Stormbringer has been largely negative, perversely I quite liked it.  Fairly grungy approach, and I think the vocal register worked in that context.  I’d rather this than a half hearted recreation of the original, and it has more life than Gillan’s lacklustre covers album (Gillan’s Inn) of a few years back.  For me the last few Whitesnake originals have been largely treading water, and at least here we get some strong material.  Mind you, I’d get the guitarist to lay off the beans before they hit the road if the vid is anything to go by!
With it still being strongly rumoured that Ritchie is pursuing what is now a Purple Rainbows approach on stage sometime this summer (in between Blackmore’s Night gigs) it’ll be interesting to see who wins the battle of the monster tributes.  The sad thing is that if you’d put Blackmore into this new album, it would have been properly explosive and we’d all be wetting our trousers today.
Pre-order details, track lists and formats to follow.
Thanks to Tom Dixon and Tim Summers.

Our original news story.

Whitesnake open the archives

It does seem strange to be talking about what I regard as the real Whitesnake again after how many years, well thirty in actual fact. David has announced the first decent archive DVD release from the band’s classic era, specifically the Slide It In live tour, with footage from Super Rock Japan and Sweden in 1984, which was Jon Lord’s last show ever as a member of the band, plus bonus audio CD disc with other live extra tracks (NOT available separately). It makes a real change after all the many best ofs which have been the pattern up until now. We’ve delved into our own archives to take a closer look at the period and see exactly what’s on offer on the review pages. The DVD can be pre-ordered at DTB Online store and is due in November.