The Snakes were a British-Norwegian

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band, formed by former

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

members

Bernie Marsden Bernard John Marsden (born 7 May 1951) is an English rock and blues guitarist. He is primarily known for his work with Whitesnake, having written or co-written with David Coverdale many of the group's hit songs, such as "Fool for Your Loving", ...

and

Micky Moody Michael Joseph "Micky" Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden ...

in 1997. The line-up consisted of guitarists Marsden and Moody with Norwegian musicians, vocalist

Jørn Lande Jørn Marumsrud Lande (born May 31, 1968) is a Norwegian hard rock and heavy metal singer and songwriter. He is known for his work with the bands Ark, Beyond Twilight, Millenium, Vagabond, The Snakes, and most notably with power metal band Ma ...

, bassist

Sid Ringsby Øystein "Sid" Ringsby (born 16 February 1961) is a Norwegian bassist best known for playing with Road, TinDrum, The Snakes, TNT, Ken Hensley, Wild Willy's Gang and JORN, Jørn Lande's solo band. His recording rock career started 1984 as he be ...

, who later joined the Norwegian band

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

, and drummer Willy Bendiksen. The band released one live album, one studio album and broke up in 1999.

Biography

The Snakes were formed by

guitarists Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody, exclusively performing Whitesnake songs. Initially, the project was called 'Saints and Sinners' and was to feature other former Whitesnake band mates including, bassist Neil Murray and drummer Cozy Powell plus American vocalist John West but this never materialised. In August 1998, the ''Once Bitten'' album was released in Japan on the

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

label. Former

Vagabond Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

vocalist

was drafted in and

guitarist

Ronni Le Tekrø Ronni Le Tekrø (born Rolf Ågrim Tekrø, 5 October 1963) is a Norwegian guitarist best known for playing with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT and as a solo guitarist cooperating with guitarists Terje Rypdal and Mads Eriksen as "N3". LeTekrø ...

produced the band. TNT's touring keyboard player Dag Stokke engineered the album. A live album ''Live in Europe'' was released in December 1998, with recordings of

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

performances of Whitesnake songs.

Band members

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s *

– guitars *

– bass *Willy Bendiksen –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Discography

*''Once Bitten...'' (1998) *''Live in Europe'' (1998)

References

External links

MusicMight The Snakes pageJorn Lande's official website
English blues rock musical groups English hard rock musical groups Norwegian hard rock musical groups Musical groups established in 1997 1997 establishments in Norway 1997 establishments in the United Kingdom Musical groups disestablished in 1999 1999 disestablishments in Norway 1999 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Rock music supergroups Musical groups from Norway with local place of origin missing Musical groups from the United Kingdom with local place of origin missing {{UK-rock-band-stub