I first saw The Doobie Brothers in concert in January 1975. They were headlining a series of shows at London’s Rainbow Theatre as part of what was called Warner Brothers Presents. Supported by the legendary hard rock band Montrose, the Doobies were brilliant. Listen To The Music, Long Train Runnin’, Chinagrove – they played all the hits. Later that year, I saw them at the Montreal Forum in Canada and they had a new lead singer called Michael McDonald. I had come across him the year before as a supporting musician on Steely Dan’s tour of England. This Doobies show, with McDonald but without Tom Johnston, who sang most of the hits, I hated it.
It was only in 2004 I saw them again at the Hammersmith Apollo. They always had two drummers but this time they had a percussionist, too. Brilliant. And in 2010, they came to Bristol where again they were superb and I blagged backstage passes and met my heroes. I thought that might be it for me and the Doobie Brothers, but no. On Thursday 17th July 2025, I saw them again at the Birmingham BP Pulse Arena. They were the best I have seen them.
Given that the two surviving original members, Tom Johnston and Pat Simmonds are in their 77th years, you might have expected some decline. But no. They still sing in the same key, the voices still loud and clear. And with the Doobies was Michael McDonald, a junior at 73. My bad memories of the Doobies in 1975 were vanquished forever.
Now, they have just one drummer, the powerhouse Ed Toth, with a brilliant percussionist Marc Quiñones. Long time member John McFee is the multi-instrumentalist – guitars, violin, harmonica, John Cowan on bass and the genius that is Marc Russo on saxophone.
Although the venue wasn’t sold out, there was still a decent five figure crowd, which given the eye-watering prices for tickets was a good effort. At £9.20 a pint, I kept my beer consumption down to one pint and I declined to shell out up to £50 on a T shirt. The band were due to come on at 8.00 pm and came on at exactly 8.00 pm with no support act. Previous shows ran to one hour and 35 minutes, as did this one. I love certainty, I loved this show.
For a band that formed in 1970, it is fair to say that people go along to hear the hits, but this is a band that does not rest on its laurels. They have just released a brand new album, Walk This Road, and they played more tracks from it (four) on the night than from any other album. Toto, who I saw in February at the same venue, played nothing from this millennium and quite a lot from the 1970s. They were still great but no one is under any illusion that they will hear anything new. (In truth, last night’s crowd would have been happy with nothing but the old songs, but the Doobies don’t do that.)
My star of the night was Michael McDonald. I have felt for decades that he is the greatest blue-eye soul singer of them all. At 73, his voice is astonishing, a wonder of the music world.
I left thinking that this could be the last time I saw the Doobie Brothers. Time waits for no one and surely, at some time in the future, they will hang up their instruments? But if they come back, I’ll be there, listening to the music.
One of the greatest gigs of my life. Class is, as they say, permanent.
