Don't read this Rhythm N. Bliss!!!

[uwe]

I saw Whitesnake opening for Alice Cooper last Friday.

Rumors that Coverdale's voice is so shot by now (I still think his mid-eighties vocal cords operation is to blame for it, he reached stratospheric heights on the 1987 album - and he doesn't naturally have a voice like that at all -, but never sounded like himself again live) that he mimes part of Whitesnake's performance on this tour have abounded on the net and on youtube.



I did not want to believe it - EX-DP members don't do that my fervent loyalty to the cause told me.

So I stood real close when Whitesnake hit the stage. The Coverdale voice coming out of the speakers on the first few songs was either inaudible/badly mixed/distorted or it was clean and clear, totally disassociated from the music and what was going on on stage. We all know how heavy microphone breathing is Coverdale's trademark - you hear none of that. He stretches the mike farther away from himself, yet his voice gets louder. He holds the mike frequently into the audience for sing-along chorusses and beams happily, yet at the same time you hear the chorus sung by the band with his lead voice prominently in front. Sad. This is the same guy who auditioned with DP and got the job of following Gillan as an unknown on the strength of singing bluesy versions of the Beatles' Yesterday and Nilson's Everybody's talking "without hardly ever using the original melody" (Ian Paice).

What he obviously has is a guide/safetynet vocal track running throughout and he sings along with that sometimes (and not very well as regards pitch). Two acoustic songs were done (Deeper the Love and Ain't gonna cry no more) and while they were in a deeper register where his voice can still sound rich, even those weren't live all the way through. It was horrible.

His backing band ain't bad, I liked Aldrich's and Beach's guitar interplay, the new drummer has more feel than Aldridge and the Asian bass player is cute (and knows it), I was sometimes wondering whether he and Herr Beach have become an item ... not creating rumours here!!! With a better singer they could be quite some band.

I've meanwhile heard from someone who mixed Whitesnake in the past that Coverdale has been working with a vocal backing track to some extent on former tours too, but that these tricks pale in comparison to the mass deception of this tour.

It hurt to get that out. If essentially a dance act like Madonna does a couple of tracks with playback I don't mind, she has other things to do and think of after all. But Coverdale? It's time to get a haircut, David, let some grey show, stop the botox, tune a few steps down and sing in that rich baritone that got you out of Redcar in the first place. As a performer you should now be orienting yourself more on vintage Van Morrison than a young Robert Plant which you never were in the first place. When he left DP, Coverdale mouthed off that he was "sick and tired of screaming his balls off over the music". Ironically, that is what he has been doing without DP for the better part of the last three decades.

How was Alice Cooper? Great - I've seen him twice before (early eighties as an anorectic alcoholic on the Special Forces Tour at Cobo Hall, Detroit, and comparatively recently opening for DP), he was never nearly as good as this. Cooper has never been a great singer, he has no depth and a limited range and overall vocal agility, on harder songs he quickly sounds brittle, but he is wise enough not to overstep his limits. And you know something is very wrong (with Coverdale) if Cooper's ten years senior voice sounds fuller and more agile than Coverdale's. Great young band too (all of them unknown to me, except for Eric Singer on the drums who is very entertaining to watch and listen to, all 5 foot 2" of him!  ). It was heartwarming to see them hit the stage with a Gibson Les Paul, a Gibson Explorer and a Gibson Thunderbird, you can't get more iconic, can you?

Uwe

[rockinrayduke]

You know you just broke someone's heart, don't you? 

I can't believe AC tore himself away from the golf course long enough to go out and tour!

[Basvarken]

Geez that is bad...

I will pay good attention at the gig in Tilburg.

[uwe]

Whitesnake Management felt obliged to issue a statement:

"In light of recent comments regarding Whitesnakes current live tour we felt it necessary to offer a technical explanation for Mr Coverdale's microphone technique, which appears to be responsible for initiating various threads online on the subject of playback, here are some comments from Bradley Johnson Whitesnake's very highly regarded Front Of House engineer...

It is the goal of every front of house engineer to provide the best quality audio to as many ticket purchasing patrons as possible. The factors that have a direct influence on this include: room acoustics; type, size and quality of the PA system: performance of the musicians: stage volume of the backline gear; even temperature and humidity. I work extremely hard to accommodate David's mic technique. I endeavour to make every syllable and nuance of his vocal heard no matter how far the microphone strays from the sweet spot. Getting a vocal mic audible over a juggernaut guitar rig when it is three feet from a singers mouth is no small task... Some nights I win, some nights i do not... As far as running tracks live,,,,,ludicrous.

For those of you that interpret and confuse the strength and technique of Mr Coverdale's vocal (combined with the abilities of our front of house engineer) for playback are very much mistaken."

(Whitesnake Management November 24th 2008)

The truth and nuthin' but the truth. 

[lowend1]

I saw Whitesnake opening for Alice Cooper last Friday.

Were you wearing your suit?

It's time to get a haircut, David, let some grey show, stop the botox,

Are we sure the hair was real? After all, some Purple and Rainbow members have been gluing their tresses on for years!

[uwe]

"Were you wearing your suit?"

Naw, casual Friday!

[gearHed289]

Hmmm.... not sure what to make of that note from management... 

I do have to say that the singer for one of my favorite bands - MUSE - is frequently way off mic, and still sounding strong. I really don't think he's singing to tracks just based on watching and listening to the phrasing, etc.

On a related note, I know some guys on the Crue tour who told me that Nikki's "amp rack" contains a Pro Tools rig. And it's NOT there for recording....

[Dave W]

I'm shocked. Next I suppose you're going to try to tell me that the Beach Boys and Monkees used studio musicians.

[Basvarken]

Now tell me why an experienced singer like David Coverdale decides to throw overboard all his microphone technique and starts waving his mike in random directions while singing? Oh yes of course! To make it as hard as possible for his sound engineer to get a decent sound every night.
He must be paying him a king's ransom

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

I'm a rebel. Tell me not to do somethin' & I have to look into it to see WHY.
I can't believe this. Coverdale's still The Best Singer On Earth.
I saw WS twice in 2003 & thrice in 2005 & DC was utterly amazing!!!!!
Tell the truth, Uwe. You were holding your lighter high & singing every word. Weren't ya?
Everyone in the crowd sings every word. That's why DC calls us The WS Choir.
You say it was horrible, Uwe, but I don't believe it.
You don't like Zep, you don't like Doro, you don't like WHITESNAKE now.
I think there's something terribly wrong with your HEARING.
Maybe it's not your ears, but evidently there's some probs with your mind & heart.
Hey~ even if there is vocal tracks being used, which I highly doubt, then so what?
I saw Within Temptation open for Lacuna Coil last year & they both used recorded tracks.
I admit it was kinda weird & unecessary--they would've sounded fine without 'em.
Guess they want their performances to match their recordings as much as possible.
So whatever it takes to sound First Class. Never mind what someone's phone camera recorded.
Get the WS DVD if you want to hear how incredible they sound.

[eb2]

In defense of the Monkees, I saw the reformed/reconfigured band in the 80s, and I can say in all honesty that Mickey Dolenz is one of the best singers and showmen I have ever seen live.  Sure, they didn't play everything (Peter Tork did actually) but no tapes there. And he sings with more balls than Coverdale, fer real.

[Dave W]

You won't find me criticizing the Monkees. Good pop music, some of it great, and they were great performers.

[rockinrayduke]

Whitesnake Management felt obliged to issue a statement:

Now that pegged the Bullshitometer.

They really think people are that stupid?

[TBird1958]

 
Sad it seem true...........
I like Coverdale and WS alot, sometimes you have to face the inevitable. Call me naive but I've always thought if you were gonna put something out there, it outta be the real deal, otherwise call it (like eb2 says) karoake and have some integrity. WS and Coverdale shouldn't have to stoop to the Britney Spears level...........

[uwe]

I had little doubt that you would read this thread, R'n'B! 

"Get the WS DVD if you want to hear how incredible they sound."

I have that DVD (and a couple of others too). It is incredibly doctored, Coverdale is not singing live on that for sure, he must have overdubbed 80% of it in the studio, the vocals are so incredibly effortless and smooth on it, even great singers at the peak of their abilities don't sing like that during a live concert. If you want testimony for Coverdale's (former) prowess as a singer listen to the California Jam DVD with Purple where he bellows his way through the set with sweat, charm and aplomb, not the sanitized and effects-ladden studio vocal track on the last WS live DVD offering.

No, and I wasn't singing along, I was shaken (not stirred) as I watched and listened. I've been playing music long enough, I know how someone sounds live over a microphone and I know what happens if he has the mike at the waist while he is singing: No soundman on earth will be able to rectify that without picking up the Marshalls blaring on stage. Coverdale is one of my favorite singers (when he's not trying to emulate Plant) and now this.

And whatever I've said about Zep (as a DP fan you can't reall like Zep - it's like fire and water and Plant always knocked DP where he could) or Doro: I've seen both of them live (Zep as Page/Plant) and they certainly sing live, both have integrity even if their music doesn't blow me away. And I don't have issues with Zep tuning their instruments a few steps down on the O2 concert at all to accomodate Plant's range as a 60 year old. That is not cheating to me, but rather doing the sensible, musical thing: If you can't sing a song well anymore in A, then sing it well in G. In fact, most of the downtuned Zep stuff I even preferred as I never liked Plant's more histrionic banshee wailing as a young man in the first place.

I have my heroes too, but that doesn't make me deaf. I've seen Blackmore in brilliant form and I've seen him so lousy at a 93 DP gig a couple of days later after the brilliant one that I knew that his tenure with the Purps would soon be over. Which it was, about two weeks later when he left the band in Scandinavia.

But I suggest you see WS on their next US tour, get up close to the stage, remember your last rehearsal or live gig with a singer and then watch Coverdale's "mike technique". And then tell me that he does those screams on "In the still of the night" really live.

To end this on a positive note: I've finally gotten around to recording The Government tracks of pre-DP young Coverdale for you (performing songs from Chicago and from the Boxtops, would you believe?). My PA is photocopying the booklet for you as I type. Package will be going out today.

Uwe