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 Like Me". Although the band played several local popular music venues, they did not find success, so in April 1965, he decided to join Hatch End based Episode Six. Gillan had been contacted by Episode Six's manager Gloria Bristow, who worked for Helmut Gordon, original manager of The Detours, later to become the Who. He replaced original lead singer Andy Ross, who left to get married, and joined keyboardist and singer Sheila Carter, guitarists Graham Carter and Tony Lander, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Harvey Shields. Gillan considers Episode Six to be his first truly professional band, and in their