Eagles soar but is it last Long Goodbye?

HAS BAND TAKEN IT TO THE LIMIT THIS TIME?

- EMILY HEWARD

"WE'RE in the midst of our 52nd year playing these songs for you," Don Henley tells the Eagles' opening night crowd at Manchester's Co-op Live Arena.

"We're doing that with no fireworks, no confetti cannons, no wind machine, no choreography. Just a bunch of guys with guitars." 'Just a bunch of guys with guitars' is a fairly modest appraisal of one of the most successful acts of all time, with more than 200 million records sold worldwide, six number one albums and six Grammys, to name but a few of their accomplishments.

A montage of archive footage and photography raises the curtain, rewinding back to where it all began in the early 1970s.

There's a feeling of finality in the air - and if that feels like an obvious thing to say about a farewell tour titled The Long Goodbye, let's not forget that Eagles have said goodbye more than a few times already.

When 'hell freezes over' was when Henley declared they'd play together again after splitting in 1980. The Hell Freezes Over live album and tour followed 14 years later. Then came the Farewell 1 tour that concluded in 2006. And yet here we are.