This review initially appeared in the British Eagles Fanzine "Take it Easy". We thank Mike F for copies of his 'zine and Chris H. for writing the review.

"It's all part of the education folks" said Glenn Frey as pre-concert sound problems held up the opening of the Eagles first ever performance in England, at the Royal Festival Hall. After various bangs and screetchings from the P.A., the band went into an all-acoustic version of the Leadon/Clarke song, "Train Leaves Here This Morning".

The show, which had been opened with a set from J.D. Souther, was part of an Asylum night put on by the company to promote the then new but quite interesting label featuring predominantly Los Angeles area based musicians. A bit of West Coast sunshine in London in February seemed ideal.

Indeed it was. Once the technical faults with the sound had been ironed out the easy, quiet opening songs were performed with a freshness that the band were famous for in its early days. Introducing the then new "Tequila Sunrise" Glenn Frey jokingly described it as 'Mexican Surf Rock', and they built up a good rapport with the audience...something that diminished over the years.

Then Don Henley went behind his drum kit and they kicked off the up tempo part of the concert with a great version of J.D. Souther's "How Long" with all four Eagles singing a verse each.

The show was a good example of what the Eagles range of material was: the gentle waltz-paced "Saturday Night", the bluegrass influences of Bernie Leadon on "Earlybird", the hard rockers like "Tryin'" and "Chug All Night" and a raucous version of "Take it Easy" which had the crowd screaming for more.

Of the fourteen songs performed that night Henley was lead vocal on two songs, Randy Meisner on two, Leadon on two  and Frey on seven. Indeed the feature of Glenn Frey on lead vocal on most of the material was something that was predominant right through the first three albums until "One of These Nights" in 1975.

The Eagles had a lot of fun that first night in England as shown through the spirit in the performances and the idle chat between songs. Nothing seemed laboured and the audience responded well. Apart from "How Long" the only other unrecorded song that night was the final number of the night, a rousing version of the old Roy Orbison song "Sweet Dream Baby".

By the next time the Eagles were to perform in England again, things were to be changing very quickly.

 Contributed by Mike F.
Comments at the End
Train Leaves Here This Morning

Tequila Sunrise

Saturday Night

Peaceful Easy Feeling

How Long ( J D Souther)

Certain Kind of Fool

Out Of Control

Earlybird

Tryin'

Witchy Woman

Take It Easy

Chug All Night

Sweet Dream Baby (Roy Orbison)

Line Up: Don H, Glenn, Randy and Bernie

Comments -

The show was put on by Asylum Records
 to promote Los Angeles based artists in
London and was opened by a set from J D Souther.

'Desperado' material was performed before the album release.(April)