Whitesnake

If The Answer are one of rock's new hopes, where does that leave the legendary 'snakes?

I attended the concert with two fifteen year old young ladies, one of whom is my daughter. They both love the harder edged sound of rock, with the emphasis on gothic rock.

I wondered how they would take to more conventional rock. This time around Whitesnake were going to play more of the older songs rather than just the Americanised cock rock that made them famous across that country and also made them part of the late eighties MTV favourites.

The band is, of course, led by the purveyor of double entendre lyrics

David Coverdale.

This band has a long and impressive pedigree. they've sold millions of albums, most notably when they cracked America, but older fans prefer the earlier , more gutsy, blues based rock of the late seventies and early eighties.

This tour would help all those remember the likes of the earlier stuff while still mixing in the higher selling songs from the latter stages of their career.

Coverdale may no longer be able to hit the notes as easily , or have the power his voice did twenty years ago, but it can still kick ass.

The band has endured many lineups as well with the list of members steadily growing. From the beginnings with some of the members of the band he was previously in like Deep Purple (Ian Paice, Jon Lord).

The present incarnation has Doug Aldrich as one of the guitarists.

An excellent guitarist, Doug also stood in for the Dio tour.

The bassist had changed from the last tour I caught the band. This time around it had changed from Marco Mendoza to Uriah Duffy.

Coverdale still has all the moves, as well as the experience to know how to control a crowd.

A rousing version of Burn started us off and raced into some more old favourites. Bad Boys got a tongue lashing as well.

The sound in the Carling Academy was a whole lot better than when I saw them at the SECC.

The band were tight as I'd expect with a pedigree like theirs.

Aldrich was allowed to solo a few times.

Tommy Aldridge is really animal from the Muppets!!

This guy never stops and lays down an aural onslaught. He's no spring chicken, even if I had a fraction of his energy I'd feel blessed.

The girls were getting into this concert and appeared unfazed that this guy was in his 50's. Their little heads were banging away with all the rest in the hall.

Of course, for young girls, a front man must be able to show what a mike stand is really for, and Mr Coverdale certainly knows the score on this count.

He also knows how to get intimate with the audience.  The Whitesnake choir never lets him down and helps give his voice a rest when he needs it.

Reb Beach is another very accomplished guitarist although he takes more of a backing role to Aldrich. The band are young enough to appeal to the younger folk in the audience and still manage to play competently to suit the older audience.

The band were showing how it should be done to all the young pretenders around today.  The set list didn't vary from the DVD that was released recently.

The audience was a mixture of teens (brought by their parents) to oldies like myself.

I think the young were particularly surprised.  Even in my day, young uns also believed that they invented everything, discovering that rock could and should be played like this.

The guys are all from a generation that knows how to fire an audience up.

The crowd practically sang the whole of Ain't no love in the Heart of the City.

An excellent solo version of Soldier of Fortune was one of the highlights of the show for me.

  

Crowd pleasing for the women in the audience. Aldrich bares some flesh and show off the six pack.

Coverdale sheds some sweat for the cause. A consumate performer.

The band played for well over an hour and then came back for an encore.

With some of the younger bands lasting an hour , if you're lucky, these guys prove there's still life in classic rock

At the end, the girls were screaming for more!

And, for a rock concert, that's the way it should be.

For a band that's as long in the tooth as Whitesnake, I believe it's an incredible compliment that it can still thrill an audience.