David Coverdale handling guitar duties. This was originally a touring band for Coverdale's first solo album, it soon developed into a full-time band. In early 1978, the band released the "Snakebite EP", which was later repackaged as a full album (titled "Snakebite", released in June 1978), with the B-side taken from Coverdale's "Northwinds" album. For the follow-up album, "Trouble", Coverdale was joined by his former Deep Purple colleague, keyboardist Jon Lord. For Whitesnake's 1980 album, "Ready an' Willing", drummer Ian Paice also joined the group. "Ready an' Willing" also featured the band's biggest hit up to that point, the song "Fool for
Ian Gillan and Barnacle were quickly replaced by Bernie Tormé and by former Episode Six bandmate Mick Underwood, after Gillan saw Torme playing with his punk trio. This band had a more high-powered hard rock sound, and the release of "Mr. Universe" in October 1979 saw Ian Gillan back in the UK charts, although the independent record company the album came out on – Acrobat Records – folded soon after the album was released, prompting a contract with Richard Branson's Virgin Records. In Christmas 1979, Gillan was visited by Blackmore, who offered him the position of lead vocalist in Rainbow. Gillan declined