Whitesnake's New Bassist

[westen44]

One would think the band would be quite familiar with the singer’s antics .
There was a reason I was reluctant to sit on the couch in the green room …

The name of the band is Brass Against.  I found this statement they made about the incident.

"Sophia got carried away. That's not something the rest of us expected, and it's not something you'll see again at our shows."

[uwe]

Once your excitement over some dangling dreadlocks has subsided, boys:

There was/is/will be only one Whitesnake bassist ever



and I just saw him last week at a club gig with some no name drummer called Ian something.



Nuff said. If Coverdale still had ears, he would have rehired him long ago.

Flashback some 41 years ago, at 34:03, back when no one could touch them at their game:



What the old Whitesnake line up had in loads was musicians who could convey emotion, not just an image.



Now, Tanya who again? No 7 or 8 (depending on how you count) in a succession of bassists who have followed Neil playing alongside DC, none of them with the same quality, originality or feel. Great dreads, you say?

[westen44]

For the record, I'm not one of those guys who gets excited looking at female bassists.  I have my reasons.  Female drummers, though, are another matter.  Very sexy, IMO.  In this case, though, I was mostly just reporting the news about Whitesnake.  Whatever happens I look at as temporary since David Coverdale will stop touring in 2023.  I might add that I'm glad this forum doesn't have threads showing one female bassist after another.  99% of the time I just don't care.  I think Dave instituted some kind of ban on that kind of thing and that's good.  In the case of Tanya O'Callaghan, she does get my attention mostly because she is Irish.  Most of the time that kind of thing appeals to me --unless U2 is involved. 

[Dave W]

For the record, I'm not one of those guys who gets excited looking at female bassists.  I have my reasons.  Female drummers, though, are another matter.  Very sexy, IMO.  In this case, though, I was mostly just reporting the news about Whitesnake.  Whatever happens I look at as temporary since David Coverdale will stop touring in 2023.  I might add that I'm glad this forum doesn't have threads showing one female bassist after another.  99% of the time I just don't care.  I think Dave instituted some kind of ban on that kind of thing and that's good.  In the case of Tanya O'Callaghan, she does get my attention mostly because she is Irish.  Most of the time that kind of thing appeals to me --unless U2 is involved.

There was a huge "girls with basses" thread at the Dudepit. IIRC the majority of the pics were women who weren't musicians just posing with basses. It turned into something for all the knuckledraggers to leer at. Not what we wanted here.

[westen44]

There was a huge "girls with basses" thread at the Dudepit. IIRC the majority of the pics were women who weren't musicians just posing with basses. It turned into something for all the knuckledraggers to leer at. Not what we wanted here.

Very good.  It was the right decision.  I wasn't sure of the background behind it, but now I know. 

[uwe]

Tanya is a proficient modern day bassist, not a bimbo holding a bass. But judging from her style, she has listened more to Flea than Neil Murray (as you would expect from someone of her generation). She's no less qualified than any of her many predecessors following Neil in Whitesnake, none of which contributed anything noteworthy to the band sound (name players like Colin Hodgkinson, Rudy Sarzo and Marco Mendoza failed abysmally), Guy Pratt (who never toured with WS, but only did a few gigs with Coverdale Page in Japan, plus did some studio work with WS) perhaps excepted.

And Michael: Not for a second did I think you were posting about her with exploitative intent or to create a bass bunny calendar. Actually, I had thought about starting a thread with the news of her joining Whitesnake myself, but then I heard how she plays (technically fine) and surmised that she won't be another Neil Murray either. Coverdale has been hiring people - male or female - based on foremostly image for a long time. All luck to her, the last Irishman with WS was now-Def Leper Vivian Campbell of Dio-fame who was fired by DC because Vivian's girlfriend didn't get along with Tawny Kitaen's hen pecking order on tour (plus Adrian Vandenberg feeling a bit competetive  about Vivian - only to end up with Steve Vai as Vivian's replacement and thus be totally relegated to the background!). Yeah, "musical differences" alright! 

[westen44]

I hope Tanya will turn out to be a good choice.  But it sounds like, overall, her style would be too modern for me.  But that's to be expected.  I recently starting watching this video on legendary vs. modern bass lines.  I liked the first half tremendously.  But as the second half progressed I found myself feeling very much out of touch.  To the point even that I finally stopped watching the video. 

[Basvarken]

What happened there? Did they ask a roadie to fill in for the lead vocalist?
That must have felt akward for Ian and Neil.

[Pilgrim]

I hope Tanya will turn out to be a good choice.  But it sounds like, overall, her style would be too modern for me.  But that's to be expected.  I recently starting watching this video on legendary vs. modern bass lines.  I liked the first half tremendously.  But as the second half progressed I found myself feeling very much out of touch.  To the point even that I finally stopped watching the video. 

Really cool recording!  I seldom take the time to listen to videos like this, but there's a lot of interesting stuff there.

[westen44]

Really cool recording!  I seldom take the time to listen to videos like this, but there's a lot of interesting stuff there.

The conversation became more lively and informative than I was expecting.  I usually don't much watch videos like that, either. 

[uwe]

What happened there? Did they ask a roadie to fill in for the lead vocalist?
That must have felt akward for Ian and Neil.

Purpendicular is one of the more busy Purple tribute projects  on the European club scene (I wouldn't call it a "band", the line-up changes constantly, the only stable positions are the Irish lead singer and Ian P guesting on drums). The lead singer isn't great, but he's generally better than on this (meanwhile pulled) tour where he sounded strained and rough around the edges. Mostly, his Coverdale is better than his Gillan.

Ian Paice says he does it to stay in shape. He doesn't like rehearsing at home and he doesn't want to learn new songs, the ones Purpendicular plays, however, he all already knows.

[westen44]

Tanya is a proficient modern day bassist, not a bimbo holding a bass. But judging from her style, she has listened more to Flea than Neil Murray (as you would expect from someone of her generation). She's no less qualified than any of her many predecessors following Neil in Whitesnake, none of which contributed anything noteworthy to the band sound (name players like Colin Hodgkinson, Rudy Sarzo and Marco Mendoza failed abysmally), Guy Pratt (who never toured with WS, but only did a few gigs with Coverdale Page in Japan, plus did some studio work with WS) perhaps excepted.

And Michael: Not for a second did I think you were posting about her with exploitative intent or to create a bass bunny calendar. Actually, I had thought about starting a thread with the news of her joining Whitesnake myself, but then I heard how she plays (technically fine) and surmised that she won't be another Neil Murray either. Coverdale has been hiring people - male or female - based on foremostly image for a long time. All luck to her, the last Irishman with WS was now-Def Leper Vivian Campbell of Dio-fame who was fired by DC because Vivian's girlfriend didn't get along with Tawny Kitaen's hen pecking order on tour (plus Adrian Vandenberg feeling a bit competetive  about Vivian - only to end up with Steve Vai as Vivian's replacement and thus be totally relegated to the background!). Yeah, "musical differences" alright! 

Just by coincidence I happened to run across a video by the Scott's bass lessons guy in which he listed the 10 best female bassists.  Although Tanya wasn't on the list, he did include her as an honorable mention.  Her name must be out there as a highly regarded bassist.  It's no surprise that David Coverdale would choose her.  I'm not holding up Scott as some kind of ultimate authority.  I don't even subscribe to his channel.  But he definitely does know a thing or two about bass.  If he thought enough of Tanya O'Callaghan to put her name on the list, it wasn't just by accident.  Most likely she has listened to Flea a lot.  Probably many other bassists like her also have.  Personally, I'm too out of touch with modern bass to have much of an opinion on matters such as this, though.  A number of years ago, I was around a much younger bassist for a while who only wanted to listen to Flea, Les Claypool and bassists like that.  It became a convenient way for me to get rid of "Bass Player" magazines with bassists on the cover I wasn't interested in. But she was genuinely thrilled to have the magazines. 

[uwe]

For whatever reasons, Neil Murray is an unsung hero, probably because he is just "too nice" and down to earth. Very few bassists can match this technically, much less compose it into a Whitesnake song:



It's living proof how something can be technically ambitious (that's some Rocco Prestia-style fast triplets there, played with a supple feel) and sound beautiful, yet contribute to the song. None of his successors had his natural ear for the music of Whitesnake.

[westen44]

I don't know why Scotland has given us bassists as great as Jack Bruce and Neil Murray.  There must be something in the water. Whatever it is, I have to believe that it must be something more than just coincidence.   

[Chris P.]

Neil is such a great guy!