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Hmmmm, nice package?

From page 5 of Classic Rock Magazine July 2003

Cover of July 2003 issue.

Y&T opened this year’s Monsters Of Rock 2003 at the SECC – a blast from the past which in my view was a lightweight choice. Gary Moore, on the other hand: Everything from ‘Corridors Of Power’ to ‘Scars’, delivered as a three-piece. The Gary Moore band was well-received by the Scots.

This was what we had been waiting years for. With microphone placed in crotch and tongue firmly placed in cheek, Davis Coverdale took to the SECC stage. Coverdale is a true rock star: every cliché in the book was delivered, his right hand pounding his heart as the crowd lapped it up; the unmistakable hairdo was back; and the voice was fantastic.

He encouraged the audience to slide it in, walk in the shadow of the blues, and asked is this love? Of course it is. We’ve been waiting years to see you, David!

Get you ass back up here next year. Whitesnake 2003 is a real treat.

Max, via email What a disappointment the 2003 (so-called) ‘Whitesnake’ are. The performance by Coverdale – and his latest band of hired guns – at last Monday’s Monsters Of Rock show at the Cardiff CIA was nothing short of cringeworthy. His insistence on rehashing his brief, late-80s, US success puts him in the same league as all the other hair-metal embarrassments and has-beens. Using your microphone stand as a phallic symbol and rubbing your crotch (looking for your bus pass?) at age 50something, to an audience of 90 per cent middle-aged men isn’t particularly impressive. Thanks to grunge, the sun set on that scene long, long ago.

Old Cov has an incredible bluesy/soulful voice, so why doesn’t he use it? Why do we get godawful clichéd shite like ‘Bad Boys’ or ‘Still Of The Night’ when the man’s back catalogue includes such classics as ‘Blindman’, ‘Ain’t Gonna Cry...’, ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ etc? The current line-up is bereft of blues, soul and any depth whatsoever.

To use the words of John Peel, it’s such a pitiful waste of talent. C’mon, Dave you’re better than that! American success may equate to cash, but it doesn’t equate to greatness or credibility. So hide away all your platinum discs, incinerate anything you recorded between 1987 and ’97, dig out your old Bobby Bland albums.

Dumf, Bristol Having read your Beginner’s Guide in the June 2003 issue, I was getting even more excited about seeing Y&T live with Whitesnake at the SECC in Glasgow. I am not new to Y&T, I have known their music for years but never managed to see them live. When I did, I must say that I was blown away.

Whitesnake were absolute, sheer class. From the master frontman to the best drummer in the world (and I don’t think Portnoy could do that sort of drum solo with his bare hands), Whitesnake were just awesome. I hope there is a review in the July issue from the British tour. I can’t wait.

Stevie Craven Certainly is – go visit page 116