Umea, Sweden

Since we'd already plastered Europe in a couple of installments last
year, we now are playing in smaller towns/venues. That means lots of
connecting flights- in fact 3 flights today. All day. Umea was great,
and can be summed up in a few words: College Town, Drunken folks,
Classic American cars, big rock festival on the water with Whitesnake
headlining. We whooped ASS on this gig! I particularly loved how
people with boats could hang out on the river and watch the show for
free, much like Humphrey's in San Diego.

My back was still a wreck, as I can't even get out of bed without
rolling over first. So I got a massage. I think it made it worse, as
it was a combo sports massage and deep tissue/swedish. Way too high
impact for me. Hot stones, people... It's the way to go. Well I'll
just keep reluctantly poppin' ibuprofin to get through the shows.

After the show, I stayed behind rather than going to the hotel. I put
on my "civilian clothes" and headed out to the beer-garden, where a
cover band was doing a wicked Metallica medley, among other rock
favorites. What a great hang! Mind you, we're still far up enough
north that the sun doesn't set, so everyone just keeps partying the
night away. Sitting in the front lounge windows back at the hotel
yielded some of the best late-night foot traffic people watching ever.

Off Denmark (3 more flights to do so)!

Yay Sweden!

-U

Finland

Wow- The Helsinki Radisson is really a home away from home. I love
this city, and feel like I could spend some time here. It was a great
coincidence that my good friend Lauri Porra also had 2 days off here
while on tour (with his band Stratavarious). Perfect- old friends
drinking at the local rock bar and jamming some hangover bass duet
explorations, complete with ladies around to cheer us on- for 2 days!
Lauri's bass playing is amazing and we're very similar in many
aspects, but his compositional skills are excellent! Love the new
album Lauri. Keep up the great work!

Reindeer tastes gooood!

The gig was in a remote city- Oulu. Nice big club. Afterwards, us and
a bunch of fans took over a baron nightclub that was in the downstairs
of our hotel. DJ Doug Aldrich on the mic and the dancefloor.
Definitely a great hang. My friend Yvgeny came all the way from St.
Petersburg to see us, so I let him and his hot friend crash in my
room- it's the least I could do after the great personal tour of St.
Pete last year. I'm glad we had a lot of fan-friends there to make
this otherwise sleepy town a happinin' hang. Off to Sweden.

Here's a slideshow and some vid clips.

PS: My friend Lauri is a bassist/compser who also plays in the band Strativarius. The bassist we were listening to is Adriano Campagnani from Brazil.

4 shows in Norway start the tour.

Customer service? nope. Expensive as hell? yep. One of the most beautiful countries to drive the coast? Definitely.

Show 1: Sandnes. Outdoors, rainy, cold. They stood through it all and wanted more. True Viking blood! Dokken Opened for us.

Show 2: Larvick. Outdoors, rainy, cold. They stood through it all and wanted more. True Viking blood! Dokken Opened for us.

Show 3: Trondheim. Outdoors. Beautiful sunset and weather as we played to 20,000 in the town square. Europe opened up (and kicked ass)! Dokken played a late show nearby that was a blast. I've been goin stir crazy so I found an after hours biker bar that reminded me of an underground high school party complete with outdoor bonfire. One thing of note was the DJ. This "tough" biker bar played the crappiest techno music (is that redundant?), alternating with a rock selection.
Selection #1: Holy Diver, by Dio. Back to techno.
Rock selection #2: Holy Diver by Dio. More techno.
Rock selection #3? Holy Diver by Dio, again.
Now I dig that tune, but someone should've just put the DJ down. I still don't know what to make of this. Back to the Brittania Hotel, which much resembled an old folks home, but with a labyrinth for hallways. The only thing my bathroom was missing were safety handles on the walls! Of note: Close to the airport, we drove through the town of HELL. People actually live there, and in the winter, it DOES freeze over!

Show 4: Bergen. Indoors. We have a day off before the show this time, in which I'll do some solo sightseeing. I'll later meet with my good Norwegian friends Funky Halvor and Guro for food and/or beverage, and to reminisce of our fun times together last summer with the Jazz Mafia. G'night.
-UD

Here's a slide show and some home movies! Enjoy!

Hello Friends & Fans!

Here we go again! Rehearsals in LA were splendid and the band is ready to rock.

This is the first posting in this years Whitesnake Tour Blog. We'll be doin 3 weeks in Europe & 2 months in the US. Here's the dates: