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
Graham Bonnet work on a new studio album to be recorded featuring new compositions and a bonus disc consisting of re-recordings of a number of songs from Bonnet's career. The final line-up of The Graham Bonnet Band is: Graham Bonnet, Vocals; Conrad Pesinato, Guitars; Beth-Ami Heavenstone, Bass; Mark Zonder (Ex-Fates Warning), Drums. The band will resume touring towards the end of 2016. On 4 November 2016, The Graham Bonnet Band released their debut album, 'The Book.' Reviews were positive, with the Real Gone website calling the album "surprisingly good" and also stating that some of the tracks "exceeded expectations by some distance".