Today, EMI releases a super deluxe box set of Whitesnake’s Sunburst Years. Collecting together all studio and live albums, two previously unreleased BBC concerts, a limited 7”, DVD and a 90-page book with new interviews and previously unseen photos and rare memorabilia, all overseen by David Coverdale.

Following the split of Deep Purple, after three years as their lead singer David Coverdale released two solo albums: Whitesnake (1977) and Northwinds (1978), both sowing the seeds for what would eventually become Whitesnake.

Whitesnake originally formed in March 1978 to promote the release of Northwinds, but eventually releasing the 4-track 7” Snakebite EP in June of that year, followed by the full-length debut Trouble before the end of 1978. Jon Lord and Ian Paice, both founder members of Deep Purple, would augment the line-up, helping steer the band close to the top of the charts in 1981 (only kept off the top spot Adam & The Ants’ ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’).

By the end of 1982 with the release of Saints & Sinners, the band had released five studio albums, two live albums and an EP. These earlier, ‘bluesier’ recordings the band made before signing to Geffen (for Slide It In (1984) and the 8 million-selling 1987, including the US no.1 ‘Here I Go Again’), were from a band certainly big enough to sell out Hammersmith Odeon four nights in a row, or headline 1983’s Donington Monsters Of Rock festival, though a very different beast to the world conquering 1987 version of the band.

BOX ‘O’ SNAKES: THE SUNBURST YEARS 1978-1982 is an 11-disc set – including the original 1982 version of ‘Here I Go Again’ – featuring nine audio CDs, a DVD and a 7” white vinyl replica of the ‘Snakebite EP’, the very first release from Whitesnake, remastered versions of the five studio albums and two live albums Whitesnake released from 1978-1982, plus two previously unreleased live albums recorded for the BBC at the 1979 & 1980 Reading Festivals. The DVD features 10 promo videos, four rare BBC TV performances and a previously unreleased US live show filmed in 1980. The release is housed in a lift-off-lid box and also contains a 90-page hardback book featuring an introduction from Classic Rock magazine’s Geoff Barton, plus a new 10,000 word interview with David Coverdale and Bernie Marsden, with many unpublished photos and rare memorabilia from Marden’s personal collection, as well as a large colour poster .