Eagles in London, 1973

In February & March 1973, the Eagles spent several weeks in London recording their second album, Desperado. They also played a handful of concerts and taped an appearance on the BBC television show, In Concert. Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and their eldest son, Dana accompanied him to London. Find all the details of the London trip below, including audience recordings and the Meisner’s private home movie footage, shared here exclusively.

Many thanks to Jennifer Meisner for her memories and both Jennifer and Dana Meisner the home movie footage.

_{London, 1973
L-R: Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Randy Meisner.}

Desperado

For their second album, the Eagles once again flew to London to record with Glyn Johns, who produced their first album. However, unlike the first album, which was recorded at Olympic Studios, Desperado was recorded at Island Records’ studio on Basing Street. It was a studio Johns preferred. Although, as he later said, “We could have made Desperado on the moon and it wouldn’t have made any difference.” ¹

_{Below: Dana, Randy, and Jennifer at Island Studios.
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Meisner}

333 King’s Road

For the month-long recording session, Asylum Records arranged for a series of flats for the band members and their entourage at 333 King’s Road. To help with nine-year-old Dana, Randy and Jennifer brought along a friend named Janice Heilbrun, who was a senior in high school. Years later, Janice worked for John Reid Enterprises, who managed both Elton John and Queen.

Assisting the Eagles while they were in England was EMI PR representative, Jennie Halsall. EMI was Asylum’s UK distributor. Jennifer remembered that the night they flew into London, Halsall took them to see the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. “She took great care of us,” Jennifer remembered.

_{L-R: Jennie Halsall, Don Henley, Randy, and Linda (an asst to Jennie), 1973.
Photo by Jennifer Meisner}

The King’s Road flats were located in Alexandra Mansions on the corner of King’s Road, to the right, and Beaufort Street, to the left. Don Henley and Glen Frey shared a flat on the corner.

The Meisner’s flat was on the King’s Road side on the second or third floor.

Below the flats in 1973 was a news stand, a candy shop and a crepe restaurant. Harrod’s department store was also within walking distance and was a favorite place to shop. “Randy and I spent a lot of time there, especially in the toy department.”

Below: Home movie footage of Randy, Jennifer, Dana and Janice (in plaid coat) walking on King’s Street. Footage is silent.

“We all loved being in England,” remembered Bernie Leadon. “It was still a nation of shopkeepers then. So we’d go to the greengrocers, the tobacconist, we had a little cash and our needs were met.” ² At night they would go to pubs or play cards.

Below is home movie footage of one such card game in Don and Glenn’s corner flat. Randy and Don are the only band members present. Eagles’ roadies Tommy Nixon (yellow shirt) and Larry Penny (blue shirt) are also at the table. Janice Heilbrun is in white next to Henley (“She had the biggest crush on him,” says Jennifer), and another lady named Linda, who worked for EMI and later married Larry Penny. Others in the room were Jennifer (in Chelsea shirt), and Dana who is playing darts with EMI rep. Jennie Halsall.

Footage is silent.

In the footage, Randy is wearing an Eagles shirt with his nickname “Baby” on the back. All the band members had shirts made with their nicknames on the back. Glenn Frey’s shirt had “Teen King,” which he wore at Popgala ’73.

_{Front and back of Randy’s shirt:}

Private Jam Session

In an interview with Beat Instrumental magazine published in April 1973, Randy described being invited to a private jam session at the London home of home of Ron Wood that included Paul and Linda McCartney. At that time, Wood was a member of the band, Faces. Jennifer attended the gathering with him. “Most of the women, including Jennie Halsall, were in a different part of the house,” she recalled. “I never really knew what was going on. Of course, we were all stoned.” The McCartneys and Wood also attended the Eagles’ concert at Royal Festival Hall. More about that below.

“Tryin'”

While the Eagles were in London recording their second album, their first album was still producing singles. “Tryin’,” a track written and sung by Randy, was released as a single in the UK in February. The song was never released as a single in the States.

_{UK single for “Tryin’.” “Chug All Night,” written and sung by Glenn Frey, was the B-side.}

Praise for “Tryin'” in the UK press:

Royal Festival Hall

The Eagles played a handful of concert dates in England with J.D. Souther as the opening act. The dates included Oxford Polytechnic on March 12th, the Hard Rock in Manchester on the 13th, and Royal Festival Hall in London on the 16th.

An audience recording exists of the Royal Festival Hall concert which I have presented below. The Eagles played several songs from their forthcoming Desperado album, which would have been new to the audience at the time. Among those in the audience that evening were Paul & Linda McCartney, as well as members of the band Faces, including Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood.

I have separated out the songs on which Randy sang lead, but the full concert is also included. The quality is not the best. Earbuds or headphones recommended.

“How Long” (J.D. Souther cover)
Glenn mentions in his intro that opening act, J.D. Souther, opened his set with this song. Glenn, Don and Randy shared lead singing duties.

“Certain Kind Of Fool”

“Tryin'”
In Glenn’s intro he states that this song was released as a single in England. He also mentions that it received a good review when it was played on the radio the previous week.

Full Concert
Highlights include “Saturday Night,” which I found to be slightly different than other versions. Randy is all over “Outlaw Man” and “Early Bird.” Lots of funny banter by Glenn.

Set list
Train Leaves Here This Morning
Tequila Sunrise
Saturday Night
Peaceful Easy Feeling
How Long
Certain Kind of Fool
Outlaw Man
Out Of Control
Earlybird
Tryin’
Witchy Woman
Take It Easy
Chug All Night
Dream Baby (Roy Orbison cover)

Reviews

Reviews for the Royal Festival Hall concert from the Times and Record Mirror.

In Concert

On March 20th, the Eagles taped an appearance on BBC’s In Concert at the Paris Theater. The half-hour-long show aired on BBC Two on April 5th.

Home movie footage of Randy standing next to the limo at 333 King’s Road to be taken to the theater. Footage from inside the limo shows the street as they pull away. Footage is silent.

The Eagles and entourage backstage. Glyn Johns is next to Randy and Jennifer, who is there along with Dana and his nanny, Janice Heilbrun, in the red and white top. Bernie Leadon can be seen briefly talking to David Geffen (with beard). Footage is silent.

Randy’s performance of “Certain Kind Of Fool” from BBC’s In Concert. Randy is wearing a blue western-style, pearl-button shirt made by his mother, with fabric selected by Jennifer. He is playing his gold Fender bass with an anti-war sticker to the left of the pick guard. The sticker was given to him by his first cousin Tony Meininger.

FULL CONCERT:

Setlist:

Train Leaves Here This Morning
Saturday Night
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Certain Kind Of Fool
Earlybird
Witchy Woman
Take It Easy (with Silver Dagger intro)

“Out Of Control” was performed, but did not appear in the final film. Watch it below (via Eagles Online Central).

Following the BBC appearance, the Eagles returned to the States. Desperado was released near the end of April and the band kicked off a tour of the East Coast beginning on April 26th in Rochester, NY.

Notes

1. Sound Man by Glyn Johns, 2014 ↩︎
2. Uncut, June, 2013 ↩︎