Neil Young & Eagles Newcastle City Hall 9th November 1973

Neil Young & Eagles Newcastle City Hall 9th November 1973
I went along to this concert on spec, hoping to score a ticket outside. The City Hall sometimes used to let fans pay to sit on the choir seats which surround the stage. These seats are on the stage itself, facing the back of the performers. On this occasion, there was quite a queue of ticketless people hoping to see Neil Young, so they decided to let us into the choir seats. Support came from the Eagles, who were simply on fire, and in many ways upstaged Neil Young. This was the original Eagles line-up of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, at the time of their second album “Desparado”, and their set featured songs from their first two lps. So that included classics like “Take it Easy”, “Tequila Sunrise”, “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. Stunning. I became an Eagles fan that night and remain one to this day.
Neil Young was touring with backing band the Santa Monica Flyers, who were Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), Ben Keith (pedal steel) and Nils Lofgren (guitar, piano). Now Neil is a pretty uncompromising performer and for this tour he decided he would play his forthcoming album “Tonight’s the Night” in its entirety.  A brave and crazy move, but then Neil Young plays what Neil wants to play; even today. The stage was set out as a beach, complete with sand and a palm tree, and Neil was drinking from a bottle of Tequila throughout the show. We were all expecting tracks from “After the Goldrush” and “Harvest” but instead we were treated to a set of unfamiliar tunes, much to the annoyance of most of the audience. After he had finished playing the new songs, Young did play “Cinnamon Girl” with a crazy, meandering guitar solo, which got a great reception from the crowd; who were pleased to hear something familiar. Published setlists suggest that he also may have played “Southern Man”, although I don’t remember him doing so, and I think I would have remembered if he did, as it was one of my favourite songs at the time. A great gig, with Neil Young on great form, even if the set wasn’t what we had expected or hoped for.
Setlist: Tonight’s the Night; Mellow My Mind; World on a String; Speakin’ Out; Albuquerque; New Mama; Roll Another Number (For the Road); Tired Eyes; Tonight’s the Night; Flying on the Ground Is Wrong; Human Highway; Helpless; Cinnamon Girl; Southern Man??; The Losing End; Don’t Be Denied

Elton John, Beach Boys, Eagles Wembley Stadium June 1975

Elton John, Beach Boys, Eagles Wembley Stadium June 1975 Line-up (pretty great actually): Elton John, The Beach Boys, Eagles, Joe Walsh, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Stackridge, DJ and compere Johnnie Walker. This was a big gig for Elton John. He had just changed his band, with only Davey Johnstone remained from the previous line-up, and was about to release a new album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I went down to London with a couple of mates and we stayed at a friend’s flat in Acton. We spent a couple of days in the capital before the concert and went to see Ducks Deluxe at the Marquee club, which was pretty good fun, except one of our party took ill and we spent half the night in hospital. The Wembley concert had an amazing line-up with Stackridge opening the day, Mutter Slater on his usual top form. Next up were Rufus who featured Chaka Khan, and delivered some funky soul rhythms. The rest of the bill featured Joe Walsh (Rocky Mountain Way was a big crowd favourite) and then the Eagles who performed all their hits and were joined by Jackson Brown on piano for Take it Easy. But the day belonged to one band: the Beach Boys who transformed the London stadium into sunny California and had us singing along to endless hit after hit. They went down a storm and Elton had a lot to live up to. This was one day when Elton made the wrong call. He decided to devote the majority of the set to playing the new Captain Fantastic album in its entirety. Now remember the album had only just been released and most of the crowd won’t have known any of the track. This didn’t go down well with the crowd, who were up for a greatest hit set, particularly after the Fun Fun Fun of the Beach Boys. People started to leave the stadium in their droves, including us. We made our way back to Acton where a couple of the flatmates were having a domestic. We decided to avoid that and set off on our 250 mile drive home, getting back in the early hours of the next morning. Setlist: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding; Rocket Man; Candle in the Wind; The Bitch Is Back; Dixie Lily; Philadelphia Freedom; Chameleon; Bennie and the Jets; Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; I Saw Her Standing There; Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy; Tower of Babel; Bitter Fingers; Tell Me When the Whistle Blows; Someone Saved My Life Tonight; (Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket; Better Off Dead; Writing; We All Fall in Love Sometimes; Curtains; Pinball Wizard; Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Eagles Glasgow Apollo Sunday 1 May 1977

This was the Hotel California tour and The Eagles were returning to the UK as a massive sell out act. I’d seen them twice before, once supporting Neil Young at Newcastle City Hall in the early 70s, and secondly on a bill with Elton John and The Beach Boys on a long hot day at Wembley Stadium. They were great on both occasions so I was looking forward to seeing them as a headline act. Their UK tour took in a few dates, and the nearest was in the wonderful, and sadly missed, Glasgow Apollo. They played two nights, Saturday and Sunday and we went to the second of the two gigs. I drove up with my mate Ian, and we were both excited about seeing The Eagles. We had seats reasonably close to the front, but not too close, as the Apollo stage was very high and the view from the first few rows sometimes wasn’t great and you were guaranteed to leave with a stiff neck. According to the ticket support came from Dan Fogelberg, although I believe this was changed and the actual support was Valerie Carter. A published setlist (from the Apollo website) shows them opening with Hotel California, which would now seem a strange choice for a first song, but the album was new at the time and therefore not well known at all. My memories are of a great concert, and of the band returning for an encore wearing kilts and accompanied by a lone Scottish piper. We drove home through the night playing a cassette of the Hotel California album, constantly rewinding and replaying the title track. Great memories of a great band in a legendary venue. Setlist: Hotel California; Take it easy; Life in the fast lane; Take it to the limit; New kid in town; Victim of love; James Dean; Witchy woman; Lyin’ eyes; One of these nights; Doolin’ Dalton; Desperado; Best of my love; Already gone; Rocky mountain way; Turn to stone

Eagles Manchester Arena July 11th 2009

Eagles Manchester Arena July 11th 2009

Great night. Great to see the Eagles again (my last time was 30 years ago on the Hotel California tour!). Much much better than I had hoped. I’d feared that it would be too slick and too AOR, and some of it was, but it was also really really good!
The sound was faultess, even from my cheap (£50 ouch!) seat at the back of the vast MEN arena , and the set was a good mix of old and new. I must say that I was not entirely impressed by the suits that the band wear. What is that all about?! Joe Walsh stood out as the star of the show for me. I’d forgotten how good some of his songs were. Walk Away brought back memories. I probably haven’t heard it since the last time I saw him play it in the 70s. Glad I made the effort to see them again while they are still touring.

Setlist:
How Long
Busy Being Fabulous
I Don’t Want to Hear Any More
Guilty of the Crime
Hotel California
Peaceful Easy Feeling
I Can’t Tell You Why
Witchy Woman
Lyin’ Eyes
Boys of Summer
In the City
The Long Run

No More Walks in the Wood
Waiting in the Weeds
No More Cloudy Days
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Take It to the Limit
Long Road Out of Eden
Somebody
Walk Away
One of These Nights
Life’s Been Good
Dirty Laundry
Funk #49
Heartache Tonight
Life in the Fast Lane
Encores:
Take It Easy
Desperado

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