DAVID COVERDALE Explains Lack Of U.S. Release For WHITESNAKE's '1987: 20 Anniversary' Edition

WHITESNAKE mainman David Coverdale has posted a message on his official web site regarding WHITESNAKE's "1987: 20 Anniversary Collector's Edition" CD and DVD which was recently issued in Europe. According to Coverdale, "the 'powers that be' at Universal/Geffen had so far declined to get involved with the new 'special edition' CD/DVD for the U.S. We're still negotiating if we'll extend the contracts, but as we have yet to commit, I think they were understandably 'shy' to spend any money on promoting a new project, in case we move on, as it were. Sorry if this is inconvenient, but, there is nothing I can do about it."

Originally released in 1987, the album hit No. 8 in the U.K. charts and went on to sell a phenomenal eight million copies worldwide. The LP spawned three hit singles — the LED ZEPPELIN-influenced "Still of the Night", the anthemic "Here I Go Again", and the power ballad "Is This Love". The CD features the original European album (with two more tracks than its American counterpart) and four bonus tracks taken from "Live...In the Shadows of the Blues". The DVD features four videos, all of which got huge airplay on MTV at the time of release — which may have been influenced by the appearance of David Coverdale's then-wife Tawny Kitaen — and four live performances from the "Live ...In the Still of the Night" concert.

In other news, Coverdale recently posted a message on his web site regarding the band's promotional video catalog which he plans on releasing on DVD. "The most requested item has always been the MTV videos from that time to have on DVD, and this is the first time they are professionally available in this form," he said. "My intention is to explore and remix, re-package a lot of the material that I have had no access to for many years, thanks to restricting record company contracts, until then, I hope to present you all as interesting and rewarding collections such as this, which, by the way, I thoroughly enjoy having in MY collection. It has never occurred to me to put bootlegs together with 'official' works. Perhaps I can consider this for future collections...as long as nobody complains about the quality!"

WHITESNAKE's video for the new studio song "Ready to Rock" has been posted online at this location (Real Media). The track is one of four previously unreleased cuts that appear on WHITESNAKE's new live record, entitled "Live… In the Shadow of the Blues", which was issued in Europe in November via Steamhammer/SPV Records.

WHITESNAKE has set "Good to be Bad" as the title of its new studio album, tentatively due before the end of the year.