Review of:

“The Spread Eagles”

At: The Cock Hotel, Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes

On: Thursday 09/06/05

By: Gaby

By any definition most rock fans would not exactly place “The Eagles” high up on their Rock mantle pieces or for that matter on their list of Greatest Rock Bands ever, but you could be forgiven for thinking that “The Eagles” were just another west coast folk-rock / country-rock American band from the 70’s.

In fact I find it hard to categorise The Eagles. But would at best probably put them along side other American bands such as Boston, Chicago and Seals & Crofts.

In their day The Eagles were huge (esp. in America) where the wild west and open highways lent themselves perfectly to “The Eagles” own brand of easy-listening mild rock which  was bought by the bucket-load by grid-locked LA commuters, long distance lorry drivers and Louisiana country folk alike.

It was on this particularly warm evening that my girlfriend and I decided to check out this latest venture in covers bands which was being held as part of the annual “Stony Live” festival and to be honest we quite enjoyed it.

Somewhere in the darker recesses of my vast CD collection I have a CD called “The Best of The Eagles” and all those old “classics” came rushing back with the easy-going swagger of the cowboys they would often sing about.

There was something definitely appealing about this covers band.

They were obviously huge Eagles fans and covered some of their earliest songs (that neither of us had ever heard of) right up to their more rock/funk recent hits such as   “Take it to the Limit”, “Hotel California”, “Tequila Sunrise”, One of These Nights”   and of course songs like “Desperado” and “Take It Easy”.

Besides some of the songs, I suppose what I enjoyed most was the band’s honesty and conviction to the music – something I suppose a lot of cover / tribute bands could take a lesson from.

Nothing particurly amazing or incredible about this performance, but rather a pleasant way to spend a warm summer evening, drinking a cider or two whilst surveying some middle aged Eagles fans strutting their stuff to some pure home-grown Americana pop/rock.