DAVID Coverdale turned 55 last month but with a new band of preening 'real' rockers he's packing them in.

So much so that four new dates have been added to the latest Whitesnake tour which comes to Newport tomorrow night.

Spandex wrapped rock is hip again and there's a revived audience who can't wait to hear Here I Go Again etc.

Like Alice Cooper and other fading stars, Coverdale surrounds himself with nubile young men, replacing the ageing rockers as they turn grey. Whitesnake is now Timothy Dury (keyboards and vocals), Doug Aldrich (guitar), Reb Beach (guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass), and Tommy Aldridge (drums).

Aldridge is the only member from a previous incarnation of the band having joined in 1989 before their appearance at Monsters of Rock. Coverdale recruited entire new bands several times in the run up to Whitesnake's eponymous debut in 1987.

Cutting away musical talent for MTV appeal he rerecorded old songs and slapped on make-up to break the American market. Until then Whitesnake had been a blues hard-rock band occupying a middle ground left vacant when Deep Purple split, of whom Coverdale had been a member.

The original rockin' line-up of Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody (guitars) and Neil Moody (bass) now appear as Company of Snakes and play Whitesnake tunes as they were originally meant to be heard.

Whitesnake play Newport Centre on Saturday, October 23.