Whitesnake

The sight of a bunch of old farts with ridiculous hair posing and posturing with half their chests exposed should be ridiculous but somehow Whitesnake manage to overcome the laughs at their expense and the shows generate some real excitement.

This is real red-blooded rock. No pretence at genre busting originality, no neo-feminist or socialistic statements and definitely no attempt to re-educate their audience in the rights and wrongs of whale fishing. If Whitesnake were a car they would be a Porsche Cayenne Turbo and when the cameras pan out across the huge auditoriums packed out with boys, girls, men and women and all dancing, pointing at the stage and singing along to ‘Steal Your Heart Away’ you can see what the point is. When the eyes close in supplication as Coverdale sings ‘Forevermore’ you get to understand that for the thousands in the crowd this is ‘their song’ and there are probably generations conceived to the strains of Doug Aldridge and Reb Beach’s guitar solos.

The ballads are monstrous and powerfully ponderous but for every ‘Is This Love’ there is also an outright strutting, rutting blast of a number like ‘Love Will Set You Free’ or ‘Give Me All Your Loving Tonight’. The big Blues numbers like ‘My Evil Ways’ are here without shame and the band work the crowds brilliantly with all the tongue waggling and hip-pumping backing the music up.

All the pomp and the power of great rock music is in these concerts along with some damn fine music and David Coverdale’s screaming vocals. The ‘Wrecking Crew’ of Mike Devin (bass) and Brian Tichy (drums) is incredibly powerful and drives the music like the turbo heart of the Cayenne.

It ain’t trendy or even something you admit to acquaintances but to millions around the world this is the music that makes their year: it is seductively good fun to listen to – this was music made for the live show and delivered brilliantly.

The ‘Made in Japan’ set is released in virtually every imaginable form - “Deluxe Edition" which houses 2 CDs and 1 DVD, the second format is the DVD edition and the third format is the Blu-ray edition..