Whitesnake Album: “Live At Donington 1990”

I first just want to say that I am very excited that this show has finally been released.

I purchased the CD/DVD combo, and while the performance and audio quality are excellent, I'm not a huge fan of the video. My problem is not with the video quality itself, since it's about what I expected given when it was shot and because it was not filmed for an official release. The video does, however, look much better on my smaller 37" TV than it does on my 52" TV. One thing that I do not like about the video is that it's comprised mostly of individual close-ups, with very few shots showing more than one band member at a time. I'm guessing that this is because they had to use the video feeds that were displayed on the big screens during the actual concert, which are usually all close-up shots. Some other annoying things about the video are that the video often changes from color to black & white, and there are several cheesy slo-mo effects used througout the video.

Even though I don't care much for the DVD, the CDs alone get 5 stars and make this is an excellent purchase for the price. This concert will be getting a lot of play time in my CD player and on my iPod.

It's only a "nineties" album by sheer technicality...

was released on November 18, 1989, and this Donnington set is from August 18, 1990 (headlining a bill that included Aerosmith, Poison, Quireboys, and Thunder). I see it as more of a "last gasp of classic 1980s hair metal." After "Slip," there wouldn't be another Whitesnake album until

, and that was actually a Coverdale solo album released under the Whitesnake logo due to the insistence of his record label.

In addition to his tenure with Frank Zappa and his solo works, Steve Vai had become well known for a bit of band hopping: Alcatrazz,

(1985), Public Image Limited,

(1985), and two albums with the post-Van Halen David Lee Roth.

As work began on the follow-up to their ridiculously popular album

, guitarist Vivian Campbell left the band, and second guitarist Adrian "The Flying Dutchman" Vandenberg suffered a wrist injury that took him out of the game. Vai stepped in and played all of the guitars on "Slip," and by the time of the Donnington show, Vandenberg was back.

In terms of "serious music" and "perfect audiophile sound quality" and virtually any egghead qualifier you might want to slap on this CD/DVD (yes, buy the package that includes BOTH), you can't bring those things into a discussion about Whitesnake. It's always been about excess, about crude "boys in the band" behavior (Coverdale often ping-pongs between gentleman and pig in his stage banter).

And Vai? This is the guy who successfully transcribed Frank Zappa's "The Black Page," a piece of music so complex that most musicians would balk at attempting to play it. He's got the precision, he's got the Van Halen / Satriani "million notes a second" thing down cold, and at the same time, he's one of the true kings of wretched excess. Could there be a better onstage foil for Coverdale?

And for the record, Vandenberg wasn't all that impressed with Vai's contribution to "Slip."

The Donnington set serves up the key tracks from "Whitesnake" that you saw / heard a zillion times on MTV ("Is This Love," "Here I Go Again," the set-closing "Still Of The Night," plus "Bad Boys"), as well as 5 of the original 10 tracks from "Slip" ("Slip Of The Tongue," "Judgement Day," "Kitten's Got Claws," "Cheap & Nasty," "Fool For Your Loving"). There are solo segments from Vandenberg and Vai, plus the expected Whitesnake classics like "Slide It In."

It's big hair! It's loads and loads of "guitar face!" It's romantic "power ballads" balanced with infantile, sexist headbanging!

In short, it's an essential 80s/90s time capsule treasure.

Not everyone's cup of tea (just like frontman David Coverdale himself), but if you were there...ESPECIALLY if you were there, be it at Donnington or in front of your TV while those Tawny Kitaen videos seemingly played ON THE HOUR, 7 days a week, on MTV...you can't possibly be without this one.

This CD/DVD combination affords us the opportunity to hear Whitesnake, one of the defining 80's hair bands (who are musically quite talented as well), in its prime with the Coverdale/Vandenburg/Vai/Sarzo/Aldridge lineup. Playing at Castle Donnington for the Monsters of Rock extravaganza, the set list here covers all of the usual Whitesnake hits. No casual listener should be unhappy.

Let's start with the good. The packaging, liner notes, and pictures for are superb. Coverdale goes into detail about the concert, the creation of the CD, the fact that "no expenses were spared" for the DVD portion and that the concert sound was given a thorough treatment in the studio. Transmitted by the BBC for radio broadcast, I would describe the sound on the CD's as better that I expected, given its age and source. Slightly bass heavy at times, there's no doubt that a moderate amount of compression was used either in the studio clean-up or was present during the original taping during the radio broadcast (or both). Nevertheless, as other reviewers have noted, everything comes through pretty clearly. Aldridge's drums sound great, Vandenberg and Vai's guitar's are at times split between left and right channels (and you can tell who's who almost immediately); Coverdale's vocals are slightly recessed, but it's not a problem - it just sounds more like a concert where you're back aways.

Clearly a good night, the band plays with tremendous energy and speed. The crowd's fired up and, with a little imagination, you can easily put yourself there about half-way back on the ground.

DVD footage is, as others have noted, not the best in terms of concert viewing. This might something good for a party where no one is watching the TV constantly, but is perhaps talking, listening and occasionally viewing as they pass by on their way to get another beverage.

Overall, a classic live album from Whitesnake from one of their career high points.

I found this cd/dvd account of WHITESNAKES', "SLIP OF THE TONGUE" support tour, very entertaining. I saw the show at JONES BEACH in New York, and it did bring back memories. Being a self taught guitarist, I have always had the highest respect for the talent of Steve Vai, and Adrian Vandenberg has also been one of the many musicians I have enjoyed listening to over the years, he is one very talented individual. They must have put their egos asside, in order to pull this off. I listened to the cd's a few times in the first day or two, and then watched the dvd twice in one night, while I did some house work. No disappointment here. If you are a fan of WHITESNAKE or any of the musicians on this set, (Tommy Aldridge, David Coverdale, Rudy Sarzo, Steve Vai, Adrian Vandenberg, or Rick Seratte, -keyboards) you will enjoy this offering.

VINNY THE ROCKER

The image and sound of this DVD are of poor quality. I don't recommend it. If you're a real WS fan and wanna buy it, this DVD bring to us a few of good moments, purchase it and good lucky.