Eagles Live in Concert

What better way to spend Independence Day than to see the Eagles, an all-American band? We booked the tickets for their Long Road to Eden concert at Hampden Park in Glasgow many months ago and the day finally arrived.

Getting home from gigs in Glasgow can be risky, as the last train leaves at 11:30pm and after that buses leave much later and take longer. Helen was tipped off about the Happy Bus which takes you "to the venue" and back to Edinburgh afterwards. As the show was at Hampden Park, far from Glasgow city centre where the trains are, we bought tickets for the Happy Bus.

The Happy Bus wasn't as old and uncomfortable as we expected, but it was pretty hot as the air conditioning wasn't going and there were no windows to open. Being a hot sunny day, we were glad to arrive and step out into the fresh air.

Around the venue, there were police everywhere, and no stopping signs on all roads for miles around. The Happy Bus dropped us cunningly in a side road about a 20 minute walk from the stadium, from there we had to walk. We still had hours to go until the show, so went to the local Asda supermarket to sit in the cafeteria and have an early dinner and drinks.

We headed to the stadium early too, arriving just on gate opening time around 5:30pm. The stadium is split into sections, each with its own entry gates and exit doors, bars, toilets etc. Once you're in, you're locked into a section. No doubt designed for football hooligans. We sat in the near empty stadium, and slowly watched it fill up for the next couple of hours.

At 7:00pm sharp, the support act started. It was Paul Carrack, the name didn't ring a bell but he and his band belted out songs of his for about 4o minutes that were all known from other bands such as Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics etc. A good crowd pleaser. I didn't realise until reading Wikipedia afterwards that the Eagles covered one of his songs on their new album. The penny has finally dropped.

At 8:00pm sharp, on came the Eagles. Boy was I excited! I've watched their concert DVDs over and over again, and finally I get to see them with my own eyes. And they totally delivered. The tour was to promote their new album, Long Road To Eden, so they quickly dispensed with playing a couple of new songs to warm the crowd before heading full on into their back catalogue. Only once did they return to new material probably to let us relax a little.

The Eagles were on fine form, very relaxed, and kept the audience involved with various interaction and banter. They really don't take themselves too seriously these days. They did however have an impressive light show to match their music, a big screen projecting video clips behind the stage, and two big screens each side showing the band members in closeup singing, playing etc. All very high quality screens with no pixelation. The video mixing was great and good enough to put straight to DVD, that's how slick a production this was.

This was a real rocking & rolling concert, playing all the crowd favourites, keeping the pace up. This seemed to be Joe Walsh's night, he played a number of his songs, and clowned around plenty, while Don Henley seemed to be happy to let the limelight wander. Unusual but refreshing. Joe Walsh can play the guitar, make no mistake about that!!!!!

Unfortunately two of my favourites, The Last Resort and Wasted Time, were a little slow for this concert and didn't make the set. A shame. An aside; anyone who hasn't listened to The Last Resort should sometime, it carries a message that although was probably true in California in the 70's, is true worldwide today. "Call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye".

The show went by all too quickly. It was just fantastic and didn't fail to deliver in any way. They are such a tight band, and true musicians and showmen.

This was all helped by perfect weather, perfect temperature for T-shirts, and still light in the sky when we left the stadium at 10:15pm. We had a brisk walk back to the Happy Bus, although we had a long wait and didn't leave until gone 11:00pm by which time it was the Tired and Not Quite So Happy Bus :-). We made it home around 1:00am at which time the sky had just gone true black.

A fanastic evening. I'm certain this tour will make it to DVD & Blu-Ray in time, and I cannot wait to purchase it and savour the experience again.