It should be made clear from the start they don’t physically resemble The Eagles in any shape or form, but painstakingly and note-perfectly reassemble the country rock giants’ laid-back West Coast repertoire. I doubt many people would want to look like Joe Walsh anyway or, even, to have been able to recognise any of the fairly unstarry Eagles during their heyday, so looks count for nothing,
The quintet of Greg Webb (gtr/vocals), Trevor Newnham (bass/vocals), Mike Baker (gtr/keys/vocals), Garreth Hicklin (gtr/keys/vocals) and Tony Kiley (once of the Blow Monkeys, drums) neither have rock’n’roll names nor a particularly cool heritage – hailing from the likes of Grimsby, Hornchurch, Romford and Swansea.
What they do have is hard-nosed, finely honed craftsmanship established through years on the road across the UK and Europe – only Covid interrupted their never-ending tour of around 10 gigs a year – resulting in flawless renditions of the compositions of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and, latterly, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmitt.
So, here we were in a pretty packed Concert Hall on the last theatre show of the year for the Desperado Tour 2025 (it magically becomes the Hotel California tour when it continues in the new year) anticipating extreme authenticity in the shape of sublime harmonies, guitar solos and instrumental licks.
And we were, of course, not disappointed. With former musical directorship and band founder Phil Aldridge in the audience, classic followed classic right from the opening notes of Take It Easy, with Winslow, Arizona on the big screen, to the rousing finale of Hotel California.
Being the Desperado tour there was plenty from the 1973 album of the same name, including Doolin-Dalton, Tequila Sunrise, Certain Kind Of Fool, and the title track, with Baker outstanding on piano/vocals, plus the reprises.
Apart from that, there was Witchy Woman, One Of These Nights, Heartache Tonight, an excellent Take It To The Limit with Newnham on vocals, Life In The Fast Lane, the eight verses of Lyin’ Eyes as a singalong (with lyrics on the screen) and the 1994 Eagles comeback track Love Will Keep Us Alive, released after hell froze over.
Outside the Eagles oeuvre, we had Henley’s Boys Of Summer and a rousing interpretation of Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way.
The encore, naturally, was a splendid version of Hotel California (Webb on vocals) exemplifying the excellent harmonies contained within this fivesome, with the front four especially providing sublime musicianship of such a high standard that these guys should be household names.