News October 4, 2018

Gudinski on The Eagles’ just announced Australian tour: “They sound better than ever, they sound perfect.”

Senior Journalist, B2B

As The Eagles’ Australian tour in late summer was being announced this morning, Frontier Touring chief Michael Gudinski was speaking enthusiastically to TMN about two of their shows that he recently caught in the US.

At each, Gudinski said, “There were 40,000 there, three generations of people in the audience, thanks to Spotify.”

The 2019 shows will be the first time Australia and New Zealand see the band since the death of co-founder Glenn Frey in January 2016 – a year after they last toured here.

Since the band has reconvened with a new expanded lineup and proved to be an invigorated beast.

So much so that their US tour has had to keep adding dates.

Of their continued pulling power, Gudinski observed, “There’s no new album. Meantime, their greatest hits album [Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975] knocked off Michael Jackson’s Thriller as best-selling record of all time in the US.”

The lineup is Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Vince Gill and Deacon Frey, accompanied by a full horn section and full string section.

Gill, a 21-time Grammy winner, country music superstar and fiery guitarist, quipped when he was asked to join, “I always thought I would make a good Eagle.”

In America, Deacon Frey – Glenn’s 26-year-old son – is starting to reach star status, with songwriter Jimmy Webb acclaiming him as one of the best voices he’d worked with.

Frey looks like his father, and occupies the same place on the stage.

He started playing guitar at the age of seven and the first song he learned was Take It Easy.

Don Henley offered him the gig after seeing him perform Eagles songs at a Glenn Frey memorial service.

Henley described the younger Frey’s addition as akin to an artisan’s guild in Europe and Asia, where the master father passed his skills to his apprentice child to carry on.

The young Frey made his debut with The Eagles before 56,000 fans at Dodger Stadium at the Classic West festival and more than proved himself.

“He’s a red hot guitar player as well,” Gudinski says.

He adds, “The Eagles are bigger in America than they’ve ever been and I’m proud to say Australia and New Zealand are the first countries to get the show outside of America.

“Each time they’ve come to Australia they’ve done phenomenal business.

“Last time we booked a 36,000-seat stadium in one of the cities figuring we’d be okay. We had to do two shows.

“They’re the biggest and longest lasting American band of all time. It’s because they do the right songs and they sound perfect.”