{"id":606317,"date":"2026-05-27T09:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:05:11","slug":"eagles-50-years-of-hotel-california-only-in-classic-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606317\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles: 50 years of Hotel California \u2013 only in Classic Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave\u2026 How many times have you heard (or said) that phrase? I\u2019d wager a fair few over the years. And that\u2019s just testament to how firmly embedded the Eagles<\/a>\u2019 1976 song Hotel California is in general popular culture. This year, said song \u2013 and the album that shares its name \u2013 reaches its 50th birthday.<\/p>\n

To celebrate, we tell the story of its genesis and its making in the company of Don Henley and producer Bill Szymczyk. It\u2019s a full-on tale of chainsaws, Mexican reggae, strict drinking hours and much more besides.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another album that reaches its half-century in 2026 is the fast and furious debut from Ramones<\/a>. Kris Needs (a man who was in at the beginning) charts its arrival on the scene, and how a record just shy of half an hour in length changed the whole musical landscape \u2013 both here and in the US.<\/p>\n

In addition, this issue we talk to Shinedown, Blue October, Steve Vai, Bruce Hornsby and many more. We also remember Dave Mason, the Traffic man, who we sadly lost during the making of this issue.<\/p>\n

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\"Sian\n<\/p>\n

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\"Alt\"\n<\/p>\n

Features<\/p>\n

Eagles
The story of Hotel California, the album that took the already soaring Eagles into the commercial stratosphere and brought them everything that came with that \u2013 good and bad.<\/p>\n

All Them Witches
After almost packing it in a couple of years ago, they’ve survived, and are back with House Of Mirrors.<\/p>\n

Shinedown
The loss, addiction and rebirth that led to new album EI8HT.<\/p>\n

Ramones
How, in one year in the mid-70s, the NYC punks didn’t just have a momentous effect on a UK music scene, but also created one.<\/p>\n

Blue October
Frontman Justin Furstenfeld reflects on a period of runaway creativity \u2013 and personal train wrecks.<\/p>\n

Bruce Hornsby
Instead of resting on his laurels, the songwriter, singer and keyboard player forged ahead. That’s just the way it is.<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/a><\/p>\n

Regulars<\/p>\n

The Dirt
Limited-edition replica Lemmy statue on sale; new Rolling Stones album announced; possible release for early Sabbath demos. Welcome back Failure and Geoff Tate. Say hello to Jayler and The Scratch. Say goodbye to Dave Mason, Andy Kershaw, Greg Elmore.<\/p>\n

The Stories Behind The Songs: Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
How After The Watershed (Early Learning The Hard Way)brought them fame for the wrong reason<\/p>\n

Q&A: Crown Lands
The rock duo talk 19-minute songs, hanging out with Gollum, and why they\u2019d rather be killed by robots than by zombies.<\/p>\n

Ever Meet Lemmy? Russ Ballard
Go-to songwriter, solo artist and former Argent guitarist\/singer Russ Ballard hung out with The Beatles, is mates with Roger Daltrey and heard Elvis stories from Robert Plant. Rainbow, Kiss and others had hits with his songs. Ritchie Blackmore, Ozzy and more asked him to write some for them.<\/p>\n

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Stainless, Return To Dust, The Zac Schulze Gang, Bruce Soord, Bleeker, High Fade, Alyssa Bonagura and more\u2026<\/p>\n

Reviews
New albums from Peter Frampton, All Them Witches, St Agnes, Paul McCartney, Crown Lands, The Scratch, Cactus, Devin Townsend, Robin Beck and more. Reissues from Pink Floyd, Smashing Pumpkins, The Who, Therapy?, Jethro Tull, INXS, Eagles, Blue \u00d6yster Cult and more DVDs, films and books on Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, Iggy And The Stooges and more. Live reviews of The Damned, Yungblud, The Wildhearts, Massive Wagons, FM, The Prodigy and more.<\/p>\n

Buyer\u2019s Guide: Little Feat
Sorting the wheat from the chaff from the self-proclaimed \u201cepitome of American rock\u2019n\u2019roll\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lives
We preview tours by Foreigner, BEAT and Warner E Hodges. Plus gig listings \u2013 who\u2019s playing where and when.<\/p>\n

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Tarja
Former Nightwish singer and solo artist Tarja picks her records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.<\/p>\n

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* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct<\/a><\/p>\n

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* In North America, Classic Rock is available in branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they’re published in the UK.<\/p>\n

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just \u00a320.99 <\/a> for six months. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store<\/a>, Zinio<\/a>, Readly<\/a>, Press Reader<\/a> and Pocketmags<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave\u2026 How many times have you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}