1.      Sailing Ships
                    2.      Too ManyTears
                    3.      The Deeper The Love
                    4.      Love Ain't No Stranger
                    5.      Can't Go On
                    6.      Give Me All Your Love
                    7.      Don't Fade Away
                    8.      Is This Love
                    9.      Here I Go Again
                    10.    Soldier Of Fortune

                    Produced by David Coverdale

Recorded and Mixed by Masuzo "Masu" Iida
Engineered by Kazuaki "Kazu" Fujita
Assisted by Katsumi "Katsu" Kawakita

Cover Concept: David Coverdale & Adrian Vandenberg
Art Direction & Design: Shinsuke Suda and Yuri Tamura
Photography: Hiro Ito and Koichiro Hiki
Recorded on July 5th, 1997 and mixed the following day at Toshiba EMI #3 Studio, Tokyo

American fans of the band are probably oblivious to this release. At the time of release it was highly regarded by the Japanese and European Whitesnake fans and deserves some recognition here. The set-up is a little strange in that the audience are invitation only and it has to be said that they take some warming up. Things pick up from Give Me All Your Love and DC even questions why they didn't open with it!

Opener Sailing Ships taken from the Slip Of The Tongue album is a beautiful song. This unplugged version only takes you up to the point where the original actually starts to kick in so it lacks the dynamics of its electric brother. Nevertheless, it is such an underestimated song that it is pleasing to see its inclusion on this cd, affirming its status as a true Whitesnake classic. Adrian Vandenberg's playing is flawless here and on the rest of the cd.

Surprise for me is the performance of The Deeper The Love which works terrifically stripped down without the plodding & predictable musicality of it's Steve Vai incarnation. On the 2008 tour DC and Doug Aldrich recreated Starkers' acoustic version of the song and it really does work in this format. From a purists point of view it has to be said that DC does not delve too far away from the tried and tested later material (Slide It In onwards). The album is, however, pretty short with just ten tracks and it's only natural that a few songs from the then recent release Restless Heart would be included, even if they aren't up to the standard of the other songs. Interestingly, Dc and Adrian attempted Burning Heart only for the lyrics to get forgotten - in my view it would have been odd to have included that song in any case as it was never even recorded by Whitesnake or DC(originally a hit for Adrian's band Vandenberg). The oldest song here is the Deep Purple classic Soldier Of Fortune which is wonderfully undressed.

In summary, I can whole heartedly recommend Snake fans of all eras to get their hands on this cd. Only real disappointment is the audience reaction during the first half of the cd where the applause can be only described as polite. Some may argue that this could be down to track order but I think a home audience would've been keen from the off. DC, sporting a rather severe hair cut with interesting hair dye choice (too dark!), sings beautifully with the songs arranged so as not to involve any Tarzan style screaming. As mentioned previously Vandenberg is superb and never invades the songs - what a shame he never managed to perform on Slip Of The Tongue. It would definitely have been a different beast. As it stands this would be the final recording to feature his work with the band.

Next stop... solo ville!

This article was written by Phillip Hackney.

Review By Nick van der Meulen:
Starkers In Tokyo is an audience recording featuring only David (on vocals, of course) and Adrian on acoustic guitar.  The sound is superb, with David's voice sounding magnificent and Adrian's acoustic guitar work sounding marvellous, if a bit soft (I think this is due to David's powerful voice).

It's almost strange to hear these songs in unplugged form - the songs we know and love being stripped down to one voice and one guitar.  However strange it sounds at first, one sould not be disappointed, because they pull it off beautifully.  It is an album that one must have in one's collection - it's a gem.  It's the type of sound we'll never hear from Whitesnake again (not that we heard this type of sound before).  This album is proof of DC's overwhelming talent and Adje's great guitar playing, be it on electric or acoustic guitar.

This is the best that I can describe the album - when I hear it I'm at a loss for words...it's just too beautiful.

Picture by EMI.

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This article was written by Nick van der Meulen.