The Eagles played the Ahoy as part of their 1977 European tour. It was their second appearance at the venue. The first was on June 18th, 1975. Dan Fogelberg was originally scheduled to open for the Eagles during their European tour, but had to cancel and was replaced by Valerie Carter.
Ahoy Rotterdam, May 11, 1977
Prior to their opening night at the Ahoy on May 11th, the band’s record company, WEA (Warner/Elektra/Asylum), presented them with an award for exceeding half a million in record sales in the Netherlands. Posing with the band in the photographs is Stance Oort, whose company, Golden Design, created the award. Oort was also a press promoter with the Dutch label, EMI Bovema.
Below is a translation from an article about the awards ceremony from the Amsterdam paper, De Telegraaf. The article mentions Oort presenting handmade silver brooches to the band in 1973. Read about that here.
Translation (De Telegraaf, May 13th, 1977):
Bullion For Eagles
The Eagles were awarded by their record company WEA for the sale of more than half a million LPs in the Netherlands . Director Ben Bunders presented The Eagles with a very special gold and platinum record made by Stance Oort and her husband Aat from Beverwijk, who have become world famous in the past five months for the special designs that they are able to create with such precious metal. They have previously produced records for Fleetwood Mac, Bryan Ferry, Queen and Fats Domino. For her friends The Eagles (Stance also made the now famous silver Eagles brooch), 3 gold, 2 platinum and 1 diamond LP in a perspex plate.
Ahoy Rotterdam, May 11, 1977
The Eagles sold out all 8,000 seats of the Ahoy for three nights in a row. According to Dutch journalist Constant Meijers, “the first [concert] was the most interesting, the second the best, and the third the coziest.” 1
Randy’s “high-pitched falsetto screams” are a “delight” according to a review in the Dutch paper, Het Parool (translated):
“After singer Valerie Carter, the stage darkens around a quarter past nine. The dimmed lights also hide the box blocks suspended high in the sky, which guarantee a crystal-clear reproduction. Cheers, shouts and applause mingle with the intro sounds of ‘Hotel California.’ The light is soft green as drummer Don Henley’s unsurpassed lead vocals slowly flow into swirling unison guitar riffs from both guitarists Don Felder and Joe Wash. A great start. A series of twinkling gems will follow. It is no coincidence that they belong to those rare groups that live up to the class of their records during a performance. ‘Seems to me,’ (‘Walk Away’) with yet another portion of double guitar violence follows, but is surpassed by ‘Victim of Love,’ in which Henley’s thin vocals are interspersed with slide guitar playing. The five-fold vocals and the fitted frame sound so cool that it almost seems smooth. A mistake. It’s pure perfection….After ‘Lyin ‘Eyes,’ bassist Randy Meisner comes into the picture as lead singer of ‘Take it to the Limit.’ A delight thanks to his high-pitched falsetto screams and Glenn Frey’s assistance at the grand piano.”
Het Parool (Amsterdam), May 12, 1977
Setlist for May 11, Ahoy Rotterdam:
Hotel California
Walk Away
Victim Of Love
Lyin’ Eyes
Take It To The Limit
New Kid In Town
One Of These Nights
Doolin-Dalton
Desperado (reprise)
Already Gone
Turn To Stone
Seven Bridges Road
Life In The Fast Lane
Rocky Mountain Way
Witchy Woman
James Dean
Best Of My Love
Take It Easy
Oh Carol
Below: The Eagles perform “Seven Bridges Road”:
Randy & Joe duck walk across the stage most likely during the finale of “Oh, Carol”:
Ahoy Rotterdam, May 13, 1977
Below: Randy performs “Take It To The Limit” at the Ahoy, May 13th, 1977.
Photo © Klaas L. Wijchman
In the photos, Randy is wearing a Harley-Davidson “Great American Freedom Machines” t-shirt (he also wore the shirt in London and Frankfurt earlier in the tour). In researching the shirts, some of them had the name of a Harley-Davidson dealer on the back. Randy’s shirt appears to have the letters “NEBR” on the back, so his shirt possibly advertised a Nebraska dealership.
Photos © Klaas L. Wijchman
Find out more about each of the dates of the Eagles’ 1977 European Tour below:
I check this site every day in hopes of a something I haven’t seen or heard of Randy Meisner. He was a genius, vocally and instrumentally.
Indeed, he was. Thanks, Tracy!
I check it out daily, also. I’ve learned so much from this website, and I now refer other people to it when they make comments about Randy on YouTube. This is an unbelievable source on everything related to Randall Herman Meisner.
Thanks, Karen. I appreciate that.
You’re so welcome.
Jessica this site is amazing! Big Eagles fan & of course a huge Randy fan as well. Been searching for years of any live audio/video of Randy’s try and love again…..such a great song! Do you have any? I have the ’77 Capital Centre footage of the 8 songs, which is fantastic but why not the entire set? Who has the concert footage? Also the Feb ’76 show in Japan where they put it out on FM radio (I have a vinyl bootleg of that) it’s mention it was also broadcast on tv. Do you know of any video of that show?
Hi Ed,
I do not have any live audio/video of “Try & Love Again” from the Eagles era. Randy did perform the song after he went solo and throughout his career. Audio/video recordings exist of him performing it then. I have a few here on my website. The Eagles played six shows in Japan in 1976. I wasn’t aware that any of them were played on the radio. To my knowledge, there is no video. I have bootlegs of three of the concerts. You can listen to them below. I have no idea who owns the Capital Centre footage.
https://randymeisnerretrospective.com/2023/05/12/eagles-in-japan-1976/
I’m not sure who owns the Capital Centre footage, but my guess would be the Eagles themselves or their record company owns it.
I just noticed the expression on Randy’s face in the photo where Randy is kneeling and holding one of the awards. I swear he made that same face when he was onstage at the R&R Hall of Fame awards show and they took turns saying a few words. It was kind of an “are we done yet” look that was a mixture of a half-smile and a grimace. Lol
I think I’ve asked this question before, but I’m not sure. Is there any live concert footage you can share of Randy and Joe doing the duck walk? I would love to see that.
Not that I am aware of. The family has a ton of home movie footage of the concerts. I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a bit of it, but I don’t recall any footage of the duck walk offhand.