Special Report By Martin Popoff
| WHITESNAKE is out there right now touring
North America, bringing the firepower
of
the updated band, the classic blues
rock
vocals of DAVID COVERDALE, and an astonishing
wealth of first-class material to the
stage. |
|
| "Well, 2003 was the last time we were
in North America," says guitarist Doug Aldrich, providing some
background. "And there are a lot of changes from
that trip. Basically, in a nutshell,
we did
a European tour in 2004 in the fall,
and
it started off just being two months,
and
a lot of that, there were really cool
places
like Portugal and Russia. And those
were
bigger shows. But in the UK we kind
of stripped
it down, made it more like An Evening
With
Whitesnake, and played more shows at
smaller
places, probably around the same size,
2000,
3000; there might have been a few that
were
more like 4000 or 6000. But it was
more fun,
especially for David I think, to be
in that
intimate setting. He hadn't done that
for
obviously a really long time, so he
just
decided, 'Why don't we carry on that
motif
for this 2005 tour?' And so that's
kind of
what happened with this. Obviously,
he's
nplayed stuff in North America and
surrounding
areas like that, but he's nplayed mostly
stuff from Slide It In on, and in Europe,
we did some different arrangements
for some
older songs. So he decided - and we
all kind
of agreed - that it would be an idea
to introduce
some of this older stuff from those
earlier
albums. So we're doing a collection
of stuff
from DEEP PURPLE through, obviously,
the
Slip Of The Tongue record. So it's
really
fun, man, and most of the fans who
are coming
to see Whitesnake now are really hardcore
fans, not like people just coming to
hear
'Is This Love' or something." |
|
| On the current tour, look for the band's
scorching rendition of 'Burn' with
a bit
of a 'Stormbringer' as medley, as well
as
racing old school Whitesnake classic
'Take
Me With You'. Maybe even some COVERDALE
PAGE,
some 'Ain't No Love In The Heart Of
The City'
plus "there's a little piece of music that
David and I wrote called 'Snake Dance'.
It's
originally something that I was just
kicking
over leads and stuff, but then I asked
David
if I could incorporate more of Reb
(Beach
- also guitars) in it, and I was trying
to
make it more ALLMAN BROTHERS-y. It's
heavier
obviously than Allman Brothers, but
I'm really
excited about it. It's got harmony
parts,
and we trade off and square off a little
bit." |
|
| "David didn't really want to tour without
product," explains Aldrich, dissecting what's going
on with the band's much-anticipated
live
DVD. "So we filmed, in anticipation of this
summer, a DVD in London last October,
at
the Hammersmith Odeon, which is like
where
that original live record, for people
that
don't know that, where that original
live
record was recorded (Live. In The Heart
Of
The City, 1980), and it's a famous
spot for
Whitesnake and a lot of bands, MOTORHEAD.
Everyone has done live stuff there.
So we
wanted to do that and have that come
out
for the summer tour. Well, somewhere
along
the line, the director got busy, and
we couldn't
get it wrapped up, and then the guy
that
was doing the editing and and stuff,
he got
onto another project, so basically
it got
pushed back until August. So it's coming
out, I think August 16, the live DVD.
And
that's the other thing. We've got the
DVD
coming out, and it's got a bunch of
older
material on it that people aren't familiar
with. And then when we play here, in
North
America, people will recognize it a
little
more. Or David can say 'Hey, this is
from
the DVD; go and check it out.' But
since
it got pushed back, we're just going
for
it. And there's a live album in the
can,
from 2003, a whole different set list.
But
I think we're going to wait and potentially
add some more stuff from this tour;
we're
going to maybe record a couple of shows
and
compile a set list that is different
from
the DVD - that will come out in 2006.
And
also potentially, we've got some new
tracks
we've been banging around. So that
is really
exciting too. In fact, I just put guitars
on a song that David had recorded.
I'm not
sure of all the stuff that he's got
going
on, but he had me do this for kind
of a Greatest
Hits or a Gold Series production or
something.
But the first thing I think he wants
to get
done is this DVD, have that come out
on August
16." |
|
| "There's always a little bit of that," says Aldrich, about work on the side. "There's an IRON MAIDEN tribute that's getting ready to come out that I played on, and that turned out really good. Ripper Owens sang on it; 'Flight Of Icarus'. And then just basically trying to work on a new BURNING RAIN record in my free time around Whitesnake; I've got some amazing songs. A lot of people aren't familiar with that band, but they can check a little bit of that stuff out on my website. But it's kind of like Whitesnake and my old band BAD MOOD RISING mixed together. But this stuff with Whitesnake, right now we're sounding great, we've got a solid lineup, and hopefully we can record early next year, end of this year." |
Check out www.whitesnake.com
and www.dougaldrich.com for more.
Martin Popoff, www.bravewords.com
For information on Martin's 12 books on heavy
metal, see
www.martinpopoff.com
June, 2005