Album Review: Whitesnake 'Forevermore' (Frontiers)

There has been a noticeable renaissance from the classic rock acts of yesteryear; many came out of retirement or emerged from extended hiatuses (hiati?) to tour once again for their still devoted but greying fans, alongside some younger faces keen to see some of the greats while they still could.

Some of those classic acts have also returned to the studio and produced acclaimed albums, once again proving they still 'have it'. AC/DC garnered much praise for 'Black Ice' as did Heaven and Hell (the Dio line-up of Black Sabbath) with 'The Devil You Know'. Sadly, for obvious reasons there won't be a follow-up to that record, but Whitesnake have returned with their second studio album since vocalist David Coverdale reactivated the band (and eleventh in total), 'Forevermore'.

The last album 'Good To Be Bad' was broadly welcomed by the band's long-term fans; although it featured a completely new line-up (save for Coverdale, of course) from the band's late 80s heyday, it nonetheless managed to recapture their signature sound. The veteran vocalist has once again rang the changes to his band; despite proclaiming the post-2003 line-up to be the most stable yet, he has changed not one, not two, but THREE musicians from the last tour. He has retained the two guitarists Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, but bassist Uriah Duffy and drummer Chris Frazier have been benched in favour of Michael Devin and Brian Tichy, respectively. Tichy in particular comes with a glowing reputation as one of the most dynamic sticksmen in rock today, whereas Devin is his regular partner on the four-string. Keyboard player Timothy Drury also quit the band in September 2010, but has still played on this new album. Has the old stager pulled it off again?  Time to press the play button and settle back...

From the opening strains of the first track it seems like he has indeed nailed it. 'Steal Your Heart Away' is a storming rocker to open the album, guitars slashing away and big drums pounding in old-school style. Things get heavier with the next track, 'All Out Of Luck' with meaty riffing from Messrs Aldrich and Beach. 'Love Will Set You Free' follows, another rocker in much the same vein and one which many listeners will already be familiar with, as it was released as a preview track on the band's website some weeks ago. The engines are not cooled until the fourth track 'Easier Said Than Done'; a song written with one ear tuned to the radio and featuring a catchy, singalong chorus.

It is a characteristic of a classic rock band that there is a mixture of light and shade, something that tends to be lacking in newer bands. There is so much emphasis on strictly-defined sub genres of Metal that a band that is pigeonholed into one of those genres faces harsh criticism for trying anything that deviates from the accepted norm. No such problems with the Snakes, and after a couple more rockers we get 'One Of These Days', a much mellower track that would not have been out of place on the early Snake albums. Again, this is a natural for radio and a possible summer single. The other mellower track, 'Fare Thee Well' would sit well as a concert ending song, with its wistful lyric reminiscent of 'We Wish You Well' from more than 30 years ago. The majority of the rest of the album is hard-hitting, hard rock performed with power and panache, although I confess I'm not tremendously taken by 'Dogs In The Street'. Most of the songs on this album deal with Coverdale's favourite lyrical theme of love and relationships, but this is more of a throwback to when it was all 'Spit it Out' or 'Slide it In'. He has also overlooked the other thing that 'Dogs in the Street' are notorious for, and who'd want to clean that up (!)

The title track comes last of all, and is probably the best song on the whole album. A seven-minute plus epic in the style of, but not a direct copy of, 'Sailing Ships' from 'Slip Of The Tongue' and featuring some stellar guitar playing, this is one that is sure to be a concert highlight if done live.

While listening to this album two things caught my ear: firstly this album sounds BIG. It was, like the last album, produced by Coverdale, Aldrich and Michael McIntryre but this time around they have managed to make everything sound so much bigger, much grander, than previously (and that was not exactly a sombre record). It may benefit from the fact they went into the studio with both guitarists available this time (Reb Beach was touring with Winger last time out and 'phoned in' his guitar parts; Doug Aldrich played most of the rhythm tracks), or it may be the new drummer and bassist have kicked things up a notch. It could be that the multi-layered vocals on many choruses are adding to the big sound too, reminiscent of Queen's trademark harmonies in some places. Whatever the magic ingredient is, 'Forevermore' sounds more like a proper band than any Whitesnake album since 'Come an' Get It'. Whereas before, Coverdale and maybe one other has dominated proceedings, here it is much more a team effort. The other thing that struck me was that although this album is instantly recognisable as Whitesnake, the band have pulled off the difficult trick of making it sound new, yet familiar. In short, you're not hearing five bars of a song and shouting 'Hey, that riff sounds just like...'.  The input of Doug Aldrich may have a lot to do with that, there's a definite freshness to this new set of songs.

All in all then, a stormer of an album. Coverdale is 60 this year and has a fantastic career behind him, but he's delivered an album that will stand up well in ten or twenty years' time. Whether the rest of us will still be standing is another matter, but even if I am being pushed around in my wheelchair sporting my Whitesnake T-shirt, I think I'll still enjoy this album.

www.whitesnake.com

Caught Live: The Lancashire Hotpots (with The Re-Entrants), 53 Degrees, Preston 26 February 2011

Video clips from other shows and sources - photos are from this gig!

It was July 2007: just a normal Friday morning, driving to work, radio on and tuned to the local station, when the DJ announced something about a 'chippy tea' song, before playing something not normally heard on a breakfast radio show: folk music! This particular piece of folk was modern, however – a song all about the joys of consuming a good old-fashioned takeaway from the chip shop and a resolute slap in the face for the killjoys who seek to enforce the 'five-a-day' mantra. Intrigued, I had to find out who these geniuses were and whether they had any more songs. A quick search found the MySpace page for The Lancashire Hotpots (for it was they) and they did indeed have more songs on there. Their gimmick was to dress as stereotypical Lancastrian working men, complete with flat caps and neckerchiefs, while singing humorous folk songs about modern life.

As they put it: “21^st Century Folk, for 21^st century folk!”

All it took was two songs ('Chippy Tea' and 'He's Turned Emo') to have me in stitches and immediately proclaim these guys as my new favourite band!

Before long I was heading up and down the highways of Lancashire seeking out where they were playing, on one memorable occasion seeing them twice in the space of one day (!) and buying anything with their name on it – CDs, T-shirts, even a live DVD filmed at the Citadel in their home town of St. Helens. There have been numerous gigs since then too, and their following has grown to the point where they can now play larger places within Lancashire, like 53 Degrees in Preston, and actually venture outside the county palatine, to (gasp) Yorkshire and even (gulp!) London!

They could be forgiven for thinking an act like that would only last one or two years at the most, yet in 2011 and with four studio albums and a live CD under their belts and braces, their popularity is, if anything, increasing. This gig was intended to be their Christmas special, originally scheduled for December it was postponed owing to the weather. So it was that at the end of February the Hotpots and their Hotpotters reconvened at Preston for the rescheduled gig, with the guys promising to play Christmas songs anyway!

Before all that though, we had the Re-Entrants. Two intimidating-looking 'follically challenged' guys in identical black T-shirts and canvas trousers, both looking like they should be on the door rather than on the stage, until they picked up their instruments for their short set. Two little ukuleles! What followed was a remarkable display – the Re-Entrants play covers of popular songs from a wide variety of genres, arranged for ukulele but aiming to recreate as closely as possible (within the limitation of the instruments) the original arrangement. That included 'guitar solos' whenever a rock song was played! The sight of two burly blokes on ukuleles camping it up one minute (when playing 'Poker Face' and not gender-flipping the lyrics!) then throwing shapes like a Heavy Metal guitar hero for the rock songs like 'Ace of Spades' and 'Highway To Hell' was, frankly ludicrous. It was also wonderful! They mixed it up, playing Spandau Ballet's 'Gold' and then doing a full, complete version of 'Sweet Child of Mine' with both solos faithfully recreated, before performing 'Pinball Wizard' and 'Live and Let Die' with incredible accuracy.

Although it might put you in mind of Hayseed Dixie (who do similarly re-arranged covers of classic rock songs) remember, this is just two blokes. To play these songs as faithfully as they do on just two ukuleles takes incredible talent, although they do ham it up they really are fantastic players.  Highly recommended – if they're coming anywhere near you go and see them.

A short interlude followed, with 'voiceover man' Peter Dickson's booming tones coming over the PA, sending up both the Hotpots and himself with amusing one-liners in between some utterly dreadful tunes (think 'Agadoo'!) on the tape before the Hotpots came on, to the strains of Erasure
(“I left the real tape in the car!” - Dickie Ticker)

This time round the guys were accompanied by the 'Lancashire Hotpipes' – a horn section dressed in the waistcoats and flat caps – but even with seven on the stage, it looked spacious up there. Kenny Body's drum kit seemed miles back! Sadly for the blokes in the crowd, there were no Lancashire Hotpants (their occasional group of girl dancers wearing tabards and stockings) this time, but the guys soon hit their stride opening with their song all about the simple pleasures of a cup of tea, 'Mek Us A Brew'. From there on in it was the usual Hotpots tomfoolery, costume changes including lead singer Bernard Thresher dressing as a pantomime pirate for 'Cinema Smugglers' (all about defying the high prices for sweets at the pictures by sneaking in your own!), the whole group donning hi-viz jackets and shades for 'Lancashire DJ' – then encouraging congas and hokey-cokeys in the crowd (!)

We even got the band's Robbie Williams pastiche all about Bernard's supposed fling with 'The Girl From Bargain Booze' as well as plenty of favourites off their four albums to date. It wasn't until the main set ended with 'Chippy Tea' that they did any Christmas stuff, coming back in for the encore in Santa hats that lit up to play 'Carry You Home' (the only song of theirs that isn't a parody of something or other) and 'Christmas in Lancashire'. The encore was rounded off with 'Hardcore Quornography', their Chuck Berry-style number where Bernard complains at being forced to turn vegetarian by his wife, the formidable 'Jean', then finally 'Shopmobility Scooter', as ever, segueing into 'Hey Jean' – any resemblance to a well-known song from a very famous pop group also hailing from Lancashire is coincidental (!)

So that should have been the last gig of 2010 for the Hotpots instead of the first of 2011, but nobody present minded. No real surprises for anyone who has seen the guys before (and especially not for someone who's seen them as often as I have!) but you know what you're getting with Bernard, Dickie, Billy, Bob and Kenny – a good laugh and a singalong! It did start to venture more toward rock as the set progressed though, Kenny's drumming was decidedly hard (maybe it was because he was set so far back!) and the sound from my position was dominated by Bob's bass. You don't see too many folk groups give their numbers the Big Rock Ending either, but these guys are fond of it!

The Hotpots are actually in the middle of recording their next album so fingers crossed by the time I see them again there'll be some new songs to enjoy. Provided they can 'keep it real' and find more inspiration from everyday life in Lancashire, that will be something to look forward to!

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