Special Report By Martin Popoff

WHITESNAKE is out there right now touring North America,
bringing the firepower of the updated band, the classic blues rock vocals of DAVID COVERDALE, and an astonishing wealth of first-class material to the stage.

"Well, 2003 was the last time we were in North America,"
says guitarist Doug Aldrich, providing some background. "And there are a lot of changes from that trip. Basically, in a nutshell, we did a European tour in 2004 in the fall, and it started off just being two months, and a lot of that, there were really cool places like Portugal and Russia. And those were bigger shows. But in the UK we kind of
stripped it down, made it more like An Evening With Whitesnake, and played more shows at smaller places, probably around the same size, 2000, 3000; there might have been a few that were more like 4000 or 6000. But it was more fun, especially for David I think, to be in that
intimate setting. He hadn't done that for obviously a really long time, so he just decided, 'Why don't we carry on that motif for this 2005 tour?' And so that's kind of what happened with this. Obviously, he's nplayed stuff in North America and surrounding areas like that, but he's nplayed mostly stuff from Slide It In on, and in Europe, we did some different arrangements for some older songs. So he decided - and we all kind of agreed - that it would be an idea to introduce some of this older stuff from those earlier albums. So we're doing a collection of stuff from DEEP PURPLE through, obviously, the Slip Of The Tongue record. So it's really fun, man, and most of the fans who are coming to see Whitesnake now are really hardcore fans, not like people just coming to hear 'Is This Love' or something."

On the current tour, look for the band's scorching rendition
of 'Burn' with a bit of a 'Stormbringer' as medley, as well as racing old school Whitesnake classic 'Take Me With You'. Maybe even some COVERDALE PAGE, some 'Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City' plus "there's a little piece of music that David and I wrote called 'Snake Dance'. It's originally something that I was just kicking over leads and stuff, but then I asked David if I could incorporate more of Reb (Beach
- also guitars) in it, and I was trying to make it more ALLMAN
BROTHERS-y. It's heavier obviously than Allman Brothers, but I'm really excited about it. It's got harmony parts, and we trade off and square off a little bit."

"David didn't really want to tour without product," explains
Aldrich, dissecting what's going on with the band's much-anticipated live DVD. "So we filmed, in anticipation of this summer, a DVD in London last October, at the Hammersmith Odeon, which is like where that original live record, for people that don't know that, where that original live record was recorded (Live. In The Heart Of The City,
1980), and it's a famous spot for Whitesnake and a lot of bands, MOTORHEAD. Everyone has done live stuff there. So we wanted to do that and have that come out for the summer tour. Well, somewhere along the line, the director got busy, and we couldn't get it wrapped up, and then the guy that was doing the editing and and stuff, he got onto another
project, so basically it got pushed back until August. So it's coming out, I think August 16, the live DVD. And that's the other thing. We've got the DVD coming out, and it's got a bunch of older material on it that people aren't familiar with. And then when we play here, in North America, people will recognize it a little more. Or David can say 'Hey, this is from the DVD; go and check it out.' But since it got pushed
back, we're just going for it. And there's a live album in the can, from 2003, a whole different set list. But I think we're going to wait and potentially add some more stuff from this tour; we're going to maybe record a couple of shows and compile a set list that is different from the DVD - that will come out in 2006. And also potentially, we've got
some new tracks we've been banging around. So that is really exciting too. In fact, I just put guitars on a song that David had recorded. I'm not sure of all the stuff that he's got going on, but he had me do this for kind of a Greatest Hits or a Gold Series production or something. But the first thing I think he wants to get done is this DVD, have that
come out on August 16."

"There's always a little bit of that," says Aldrich, about
work on the side. "There's an IRON MAIDEN tribute that's getting ready to come out that I played on, and that turned out really good. Ripper Owens sang on it; 'Flight Of Icarus'. And then just basically trying to work on a new BURNING RAIN record in my free time around Whitesnake; I've got some amazing songs. A lot of people aren't familiar with that
band, but they can check a little bit of that stuff out on my website. But it's kind of like Whitesnake and my old band BAD MOOD RISING mixed together. But this stuff with Whitesnake, right now we're sounding great, we've got a solid lineup, and hopefully we can record early next year, end of this year."

Check out www.whitesnake.com and www.dougaldrich.com for more.