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 performing to pursue various unsuccessful business ventures. These included a £300,000 investment in a hotel near Oxford. A second was the Mantis Motor Cycles project, which suffered from the collapse of the British motorcycle industry in the mid-1970s, culminating in Gillan being forced to file for liquidation. A more successful opportunity, however, came with his investment in Kingsway Studios in 1974, This led to a live performance at the Butterfly Ball on 16 October 1974, replacing Ronnie James Dio at the last minute. In 1975, Gillan formed the Ian Gillan Band with guitarist Ray Fenwick, keyboardist Mike Moran, quickly replaced