HISTORY
GREATEST HITS
Whitesnake came back on to the live scene in 1994 in support of the Greatest Hits CD (though DC claimed this was just a coincidence and he would have toured regardless of the CD's release). Greatest Hits only covered the last three Whitesnake albums, namely Slide It In, 1987, and Slip Of The Tongue. Indeed, it could easily have gone under the title of Whitesnake: The John Kalodner Years such was the absence of older material. DC claimed that EMI (the band's British label) had wanted to release remixed versions of the pre-1984 hits, and they would have done, had it not been for the fact that the original master tapes had been lost (allegedly with DC's ex-manager).

Greatest Hits Tour Line-upAs rumours of a new Whitesnake tour began so did speculation on the band's line-up. Would DC bring back all the old faces? Former 'Snake guitarist Bernie Marsden was quoted as saying he'd literally walk to rehearsals, and both Micky Moody and Mel Galley were keen to play with the band again. Rumours also suggested the return of 1987 hero John Sykes and the recruitment of Luke Morley from British rockers Thunder. As it turned out such rumours were pretty wide of the mark. The final line-up consisted of Whitesnake veterans Adrian Vandenberg (guitar) and Rudy Sarzo (bass), ex-Ratt guitarist Warren De Martini, former Nelson keyboard player Paul Mirkovich, and ex-Heart drummer Denny Carmassi.

The album and tour were a great success, although the album did not do too well in the USA. The set consisted of mainly mid to late 80's material with the odd Coverdale/ Page track, although it did include snippets of the old days. Songs such as Mistreated and Soldier Of Fortune were dusted off, with old mainstay Ain't No Love... included in the encore. With the exception of a few dodgy De Martini performances and a dreadful Carmassi drum solo the band sounded great.

Whitesnake were back....

Photo by Ross Halfin

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This article written by Phillip Hackney


Copyright © 1999 P Hackney.