August 2nd 1994 – Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Supported by: FM
“Here’s a song for ya!…” was the famous call out whenever David Coverdale (Lead singer) wanted to launch into the next great song.
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall was a lovely venue, more akin to symphonies and plays, but we would see a fair few great concerts there. The acoustics of the venue were second to none, so if the sound was bad, you could only blame the musicians. Everything was fine tonight.
FM
I wasn’t a big fan of FM, but they were there and I remember them, so it’s only fair I write what I remember. They are a bit of a cross between bands like TOTO, Kiss, Yes, Def Leppard…..but very lightweight for me. Big hair, glam looking band, open shirts, spandex, wide stance guitar playing, pouting…..everything Whitesnake do but they weren’t doing it so well. All very cliched, stage managed rock…..bit boring really…..back to the bar I’m afraid.
Set List (something like….)
- That Girl
- Don’t Stop
- I Heard It Through the Grapevine
- Only the Strong Survive
- Bad Luck
- Other Side of Midnight
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Burning My Heart Down
Whitesnake
A band with an ever changing line up. Big, bold, huge egos, pomp rock. Somewhere short of heavy metal, not cool for the rockers, but well past pop music too. Probably one of the most successful bands at bridging the gap with rock ballads, but also prone to twiddly solos. Tonight we would have my worst nightmare….a drum solo!
I’d heard a fantastic live performance by Whitesnake on the radio back in 1990 at Monsters of Rock (I had a great time at a couple of Monsters of Rock but this was the one other year I really regret not going). I’ve kept a handful of old tapes which were in reasonable condition, these being a couple of them. In 1990 David Coverdale had a great line up including guitarists, Steve Vai and Adrian Vandenburg. Coverdale folded the band after the 1990 dates for personal reason, Vai had moved on to more solo work, so this band was made up of guitarist Warren DeMartini playing lead guitar, drummer Denny Carmassi, the return of bassist Rudy Sarzo and guitarist Adrian Vandenberg remained and keyboard player Paul Mirkovich.
Great concert with all the main hits, but a bit too much twiddly stuff in the middle. We had already had a guitar solo from Adrian Vandenberg, which wasn’t too bad, quite a tuneful emotional play on guitar. The excellent instrumental “Oi” was superb, but it led to a period of pain as Carmassi launched into a drum solo…..only a Michael Anthony (Van Halen) bass solo is worse than a drum solo! Just a noise, I could appreciate the amount of skill to keep the rhythm and the speed of the sticks was impressive, but a track it did not make.
Soon, it was over and after a slow number or two the main hits, Fool for Your Loving, Here I Go Again, Give Me All Your Love and Still of the Night
I was pleased to have seen Whitesnake, but they hadn’t set the place alight. They were a very well formed band with all the cliches needed for their rock ballad style, but it would not be until 2004 I would see them again.
Set List
- Bad Boys / Children of the Night
- Slide It In
- Love Ain’t No Stranger
- Judgement Day
- Is This Love
- Soldier of Fortune (Deep Purple cover) (A capella)
- Guitar Solo (Adrian Vandenberg)
- Don’t Leave Me This Way (Coverdale/Page cover)
- Oi
- Drum Solo (Denny Carmassi)
- Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City (Bobby “Blue” Bland cover)
- Slow an’ EasyPlay Video
- Fool for Your Loving
- Encore: Here I Go Again, Give Me All Your Love, Still of the Night
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