EAGLES KNIGHT

Well the first couple of shows in 2026 were a blast. Firstly at the White Horse and then at The Stag Hotel in Lyndhurst. Great audiences and really lovely management. 

A new development this year is that I have also joined a new tribute act celebrating the music of the fantastic Fleetwood Mac! it's a real honour to play such great songs. This is a three piece band consisting of lead vocals, keyboards and me on guitar. So far the results have been outstanding, achieving faithful versions of all the greatest Fleetwood Mac hits. We're still in the rehearsal phase at the time of writing but hope to be playing live very soon.

Well that's a wrap for 2025, with The Lapstone pub at Fair Oak being the final show of the year for me.  It was lovely to see so many Eagles fans there and receive so many complimentary remarks at the end. As a hobby musician it was so nice to hear that people enjoy the music!

It's been a fantastic (if nerve wracking!) experience to play as a solo performer for the first time in my playing ‘career’. All the hard work and the hundreds of hours spent building and refining my backing music seems to have paid off and has been the bedrock of my live shows.  I'm constantly tweaking the backing tracks to add more detail or improve the mixes; it's certainly a labour of love.

I'm pretty sure this project is a unique act - probably because no one else is stupid enough to try to recreate the music of the Eagles all by themselves! :-) I wasn't sure if it would work when I started out and even less sure that it would be well received by  audiences, but so far everyone has been so receptive to my shows and I often receive a round of applause when I explain that all the vocal harmonies, guitar, bass and keys as well as many of the drum patterns in the backing tracks are also my own work. It's been so encouraging to see people singing and dancing along to their favourite tracks and make all the burning of the midnight oil well worth the effort.

Thanks to everyone who has come along to see me play and I look forward to seeing more of you in 2026. In the meantime, I'll be recording some great new backing tracks to add more great Eagles songs to my repertoire and making some equipment changes to allow better monitoring for myself and also get the tracks working in stereo for a wider sonic spread for the New Year. 

I'll keep you updated with progress on my Facebook page.

Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year

Andy

I've been busy working up some exciting new tracks to add to the repertoire. This allows me to mix things up a lot more and keep it fresh from show to show.

One of the most challenging songs to cover live, especially as a solo performer, is Joe Walsh's ‘Rocky Mountain Way’.

This has proved to be a real crowd pleaser as not only does it feature a talkbox guitar section, but also requires not one, but two guitar changes, mid song. As if that wasn't enough, there are also some high energy slide guitar lead parts to grapple with as well as Joe's trademark high-pitched vocals!

So far everything has run pretty smoothly, at least on the surface. Underneath, there's a lot of frantic paddling going on! 

What could possibly go wrong?! :)

With several shows under my belt, I thought it would be good to update you on how things are going so far.

This has been a challenging project - to produce an authentic Eagles experience as a solo performer - but also an incredibly joyful on too!

Feedback from the shows has been so encouraging with many compliments on the standard of playing and detailed accuracy of the song covers.

As I get more experience at live shows, I'm also able to identify any issues with my homemade backing tracks. Perhaps a harmony isn't quite sounding as it should or the instrument mix needs adjusting. I'm then able to tweak these elements in the home studio and reload the tracks ready for the next show. In this way it's a continuous improvement loop.

However, I'm not aiming to sound like the record as this is a live performance. To sound as close as possible to a live Eagles performance, the backing tracks are mixed to give that live band feel, rather than the clinical perfection of the recorded studio versions. 

I hope you'll agree that this makes the overall sound as exciting as a live band from an audio perspective, but let me know in the comments what you think if you've been to one of my shows. Constructive criticism is always welcome - as well as some encouragement every now and then!

Well 2024 was  a blast - in more ways than one!! 

The newly launched 2025 solo act has emerged from the previous full band and getting to this stage has been especially challenging. However, I feel I've cracked the formula to putting on great shows as a solo artist. It's taken 100s of hours of work to learn and polish the material in the rehearsal studio and getting to grips with a complex technical set up. 

Originally a 6-piece band,  constant personnel changes and differences of opinion within the band, caused me to re-evaluate how I continue to enjoy playing the music I love without the internal stresses of trying to please all the people all the time! Anyone that plays in a band will know what I mean and in fact the real Eagles were no different in this regard, with constant disagreements and arguments! 

But to do this music alone. how does one person recreate the same great live sound that the Eagles achieve using 9 members on stage and sometimes including a full orchestra to boot!!?  Well clearly, there are some missing members! If only I could play 6 instruments at once! 

To solve this issue, I developed my own backing tracks in the studio to supplement the live playing and fill in the gaps of the missing instruments and harmonies. This entailed recording myself in my home studio, playing and singing all those parts that would otherwise be missing.

These framework backing tracks are then integrated with the live playing on stage. Almost every pro band uses some form of backing track to enhance the live show so this is nothing new. And to anyone who feels it's cheating, let me tell you, playing with a full live band is far easier! There is no room for error or missed cues - the backing tracks wait for no one! 

I should stress that there is absolutely no miming or pitch correction happening on stage - everything you see me  play and sing is absolutely live (mistakes and all!).

So far I've been delighted with the feedback received and the repeat bookings I am getting. For me, its all about bringing the authentic sound of the Eagles to my audiences, whilst enjoying the thrill of playing all the great Eagles songs you know and love. I am passionate about getting it right and doing justice to the songs of my youth. 

Come along to one of my shows in 2025 and let me know what you think!