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Winging It "It all comes down to the songs," says Timothy B. Schmit. "The reason the radios kept playing Eagles songs through the 13, 14 years that we took a break was simply song power.” And what songs they were. ‘Hotel California, ‘Desperado, ‘Take It To The Limit’, ‘New Kid In Town, ‘Lying Eyes’ and so many more. The back catalogue of The Eagles has become a fixture on radio stations everywhere, and part of the collective world consciousness. It’s the sound ot the summer and, nearly 30 years since ‘Take It Easy’ first caught the ear of America, it still sounds as fresh as a May breeze. The Beatles and Led Zeppelin are the only bands in history to have sold more records than The Eagles, and the group’s popularity shows no signs of fading as they fly in to play seven nights in Earl’s Court beginning this Saturday. “Well, Wembley's closed down, right?” says Schmit of the protracted engagement. But it’ll be nice doing it that way. It’ll be like being an actor in a mini-play and you do your show every night. It should be very relaxed. We should be rested up for each show. It’ll be good.” Surprisingly for a band that has become synonymous with the West Coast sound of sunny California, bass player and vocalist Schmit is the only Eagle to come from that state, The founders Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and later member Joe Walsh who will be completing the line-up at Earl’s Court. came from all over America. And they made their first two albums close to the Thames in rainy Barnes, southwest London. Schmit didn’t join The Eagles until 1977, when they were making their final studio album. But as a member of fellow country-rock pioneers Poco, he was well placed to watch The Eagles hatch from an early incarnation as Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. "I remember Linda and the guys opened a couple of shows for us in New York in the early ‘70s. We would bump into each other and say ‘Hi’, backstage. I also remember Don and Glenn coming to a Poco concert in London when we played at the Rainbow. That was probably ‘72 or something. They came over and I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘Oh, we’ve started a band and we’re making a record.’ Which turned out to be The Eagles’ first record.” Was there rivalry between The Eagles and Poco? “Not that I know of. But there was a little bit of frustration. Poco didn’t really have a hit until I left the band. Until that point we couldn’t seem to find that big, big hit song. So there was some frustration in watching these guys kinda wave while they were going by us.” So how did Schmit come to switch bands at the height of The Eagles’ success with the US chart topping album and single ‘Hotel California’? “I got a phone call, and the timing was right for me. I remember I was becoming disillusioned as a member of Poco because we seemed to have stalled out. We weren’t in so much demand. Our record sales were going down. We weren’t making that much money. I was just starting to open my mind to the possibility of other options when I got a call from Glenn Frey. He said, ‘Randy Meisner is quitting’. And I just said, ‘If this is an invitation, say no more. I’m in. Where do you want me? What do you want me to do?”’ At the time, The Eagles had just had a hit with ‘Life In The Fast Lane’. Was that how life in The Eagles was at that point? “Yeah, it sorta was! They had already established their patterns and routines and mode of operations. I filled right in and I think it was a good move all round, I was still very.., excitable! I was happy as could be. In fact, I was so thrilled to be there I didn’t even realise the band was slowly breaking up! I mean, I was used to band squabbles. That was nothing new to me. They’re always disturbing, but I didn’t think it was the end. I’d just joined, you know? “There were some definite conflicts. I remember the last show we did before we got back together again years later and it was bad backstage. There was definitely a lot of ill will. I’m not going to get specific, but it was prefty bad. But I still saw it as. ‘Oh, people get over this’. Unfortunately, they didn’t. At least, not for another decade and a half. There was no public bust-up and no farewell tour. After a final live album, The Eagles simply flew their separate ways.” The catalyst for their reunion was a hugely successful tribute album by a selection of country singers called Common Thread: The Songs Of The Eagles which, along with continued airplay for the original hits, proved that public demand was still very much alive. Asked when the band would get back together, Don Henley used to say, “When Hell freezes over”. The resulting Hell Freezes Over tour and album of the same name combined to become the most successful and lucrative comeback in rock history, taking the band all over America and across the globe for most of the ‘90s. It’s a bandwagon that shows no sign of slowing down. So what does life hold for The Eagles after Earl’s Court? "We’re gonna attempt to write a new album, The general mood of the band is so good and so positive right now that I think we might just pull it off. A couple of years ago we tried to get together with the same purpose and after a few weeks it really lust fizzled out. But, at the same time, nobody said, ‘That’s it. It’s not gonna work. We quit’. That sentiment was never there. So I think that these breaks that we take apart from each other are a positive thing. Somehow it’s one of the ingredients.”
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