The Legend of Whitesnake
Today’s subject, the legend of Whitesnake!!
2008 was Whitesnake’s 30th anniversary, so talk of the band and how we all came together for that short, wonderful and very productive time is foremost on my mind. Whitesnake for me began at home in Crouch End, with a phone call from Bernie Marsden. We had never spoken before but we had mutual friends. We had a nice chat and he told me they were putting a band together. They being: Micky Moody, David Coverdale and Bernie himself. They needed a rhythm section and asked if I would I like to come up for a chat.
Micky Feat and I were already good pals as we had played together on a number of projects. One such project was an album with the band Streetwalkers, which hit the top 20 in the UK album charts. This prior success with Micky and the fact he was a good laugh, made me think we could be good for the new band, so I invited him to come along to meet the rest of the guys with me. Plus as David Coverdale was living nearby in a flat in Highgate, it meant being local which was an added bonus.
When David and I met, I liked him immediately; a great guy, very funny and most importantly, a great singer. Over a cup of tea and a quick chat we very soon began rehearsing down at John Henry’s near Kings Cross. As soon as we kicked off you could tell this was going to be something great. The sound was so powerful and very exciting. I loved it but Micky Feat thought it was a bit loud for him, and had other projects he favoured (we will get back to that another time). Neil Murray was next in, he was also a great mate. I knew him long before Whitesnake. He used to dep for Clive Chaman who played with Jeff Beck (another chap we will get to another time).
Neil and I played very well together and was a very nice guy. We tried a couple of different keyboard players. Tony Ashton came down, he was a great guy and also very funny. We did settle for a while with Pete Solley, but he was not really happy with us. When Jon Lord came in, it was great; his sound and feel was superb. Jon Lord I can tell you, is one of the nice guys of this world and what a great player. It seemed in the early days we did a lot of laughing, but a lot of playing too.
For a long time there was no money in it, I can remember having to fight to get petrol expenses. I used to pick David up in my Datsun 120 estate and on the journey in, we used to listen to things like Tommy Bolin. David had been great pals with Tommy and we loved that rocky jazz feel he played and any music that was played in a take no prisoners sort of way. I think that is why our first recorded music is so great; a group of musicians with many different influences and with so much energy.
The early music for me, made Whitesnake what it is today. Looking at the photograph on the back of the Trouble album makes me smile - there we are all dressed in black. I turned up at that session in a flower shirt and white trousers. I borrowed that gear off the photographer so I would fit in; I always was a bit different.
I can honestly say that I am proud to be part of the Whitesnake family. David Coverdale has chosen to work with some great musicians over the years, and I was lucky to not only be the first, but first to set the bar for all who followed, and lets be honest the drummers that followed were all amazing in their own way.
I can not talk about recorded music without a mention of Martin Birch. We were all having a great time playing on Free Flight, a great track on the Trouble album. We got to the end and it didn’t quite turn out. Most of the track was great except the end and Martin says to the whole band , “just play along and I will drop you in.” And it worked, that was the first time I had ever done that. Martin did it, he fought to keep the spirit of that track, which was like magic and so was he. If you listen hard you can almost hear the drop in, or can I hear it because I know it’s there?
Ah well that’s all for now.
If you have any questions about this or any related subject please contact me at speaktome@daviddowle.com