“Suspicious-sounding, isn’t it?” admitted the tanned Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey when addressing the notion of a “Farewell 1” tour. Like almost everything about the band’s current UK shows, this pre-emptive aside knew its place in a set that the West Coast stalwarts have hauled around the world three or four times.
But then, at a purely business level, there would be no sense in stopping now. In 2005 the Eagles came second only to U2 in rock’s yearly rich list. In the Seventies — when the band released six albums — their popularity never filled 75,000-capacity stadiums. And if the Laurel Canyon sound translates well to a muggy midsummer’s evening in London, perhaps that’s not so surprising. Take It Easy and Witchy Woman, tonight’s opening brace of songs, were recorded not in a sun-dried Californian creek, but at Olympia studios in nearby Barnes.
These harmonically meticulous meditations set the tone for a one-hour opening set that gathered together most of the songs associated with the classic Eagles sound. Leading from behind his drumkit, Don Henley tussled with the four-strong horn section as the band locked into a groove on the sultry, soulful One of These Nights. A few songs later, when he donned guitar for his flower-power requiem Boys of Summer, scenes of boomer mayhem greeted its opening chords.
With so many favourites dispensed so early, it was hard not to feel apprehensive about Henley’s pre-intermission promise that “we’re going to play for a really long time”. When they did return, it was initially in an “unplugged” style, seeking to conjure a little intimacy in a venue that could barely be contained within a single postcode. If we didn’t know better, the quintet grappling with the platitudes of the 9/11 tune Hole in the World could have been Westlife’s dads. The inclusion of two more Henley solo hits — complete with synths as Eighties as Frey’s bright pink jacket — was also unnecessary. The larger-than-life guitarist Joe Walsh fared better with a couple of his songs.
Having belatedly found a way into the heart of Saturday night, the Eagles finally brought out the big guns with Hotel California. Perhaps prompted by the line about being “prisoners of our own device”, some fans began the exodus to the car park, while their heroes turned in a perfunctory climax of Desperado. Clearly they weren’t the only ones keen to get home quickly.
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For tour details, go to www.eaglesband.com