David Coverdale recording "Slide It In" to re-form Deep Purple. (Ian Paice had left Whitesnake in 1982.) In 1985, Sykes and Coverdale started working on new songs for the next album, but Coverdale soon contracted a serious sinus infection that made recording close to impossible for much of 1986 and which had doctors thinking he might never sing again. Coverdale eventually recovered, and recordings were continued. But before their upcoming album was fully recorded and released, Coverdale had dismissed Sykes from the band. The split with Sykes was, reportedly, not amicable. In many period interviews, Coverdale stated that the next album was
David Ian the original TV casting show "How do you solve a problem like Maria", hosted by Graham Norton. Ian, along with Lloyd Webber, was a judge on the programme. The TV show was a resounding success and led to the launch of "The Sound of Music" as a smash hit, starring Connie Fisher at the London Palladium. David Ian David Ian (born David Ian Lane; February 1961) is a British theatre producer and former actor. Ian started out as an actor and appeared in a number of UK theatre productions, including the musicals "The Pirates of Penzance", "Joseph and the Amazing