THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 50 lines
This week, a group of Eagles fans bypassed the Sad Cafe and Sunset Grill - the on-line Eagles chatboxes where they usually hang out - and detoured off the information superhighway.
Accustomed to discussing their favorite band by computer with like-minded souls across the country, five women took to the real road to watch the Eagles in person.
Late Tuesday night, their van rolled into Hampton Roads, carrying its passengers to the Virginia Beach Amphitheater for Wednesday's concert - their third Eagles performance in a week.
The Eagles kicked off their `Hell Freezes Over'' U.S. tour in Clemson, S.C., Sunday. After performing in Greensboro, N.C., Monday, the band took the stage here Wednesday night.
The vanful of followers are among thousands of Eagles fans who have become friends on computer chat lines.
Just hours before the concert, more than a dozen of these friends, all women ranging in age from 23 to 68, gathered for lunch at the Olive Garden in Virginia Beach. Over drinks and pasta, they met - some for the first time - and talked, of course, about the Eagles.
``I'd never met Linda before today, but I feel like I've gotten to know her really well on-line over the last two years,'' Peg Chandler, a 34-year-old geologist from New Hampshire, said of another group member. ``I had images of what all these people would look like - and none of them were accurate.''
Lisa Mielke, 26, and her roommate, Melissa Prepster, 27, both teachers in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, have been Eagles fans since childhood. The two began publishing their own monthly Eagles fan magazine, ``The Wasted Times,'' last year.
Mielke and Prepster met three of their on-line friends in Pittsburg last weekend: Karen Mott of New York, Vicki Clements of New Hamphire and Cheryl Ito of Washington state. Renting a van and stocking up on batteries for their laptop computer, the five hit the highways.
``We followed them all over the country when they last toured in 1994,'' Mielke said of herself and Prepster. ``It seemed like we ate peanut butter and jelly for 10 entire days. At least we have credit cards this time!''
Although the same music is played at all the shows, these die-hards discover differences that most people don't notice.
``The songs are the same, but they feel different every time you hear them,'' Clements said. ``You can see how the band members interact with each other and the audience.
Before ending their U.S. tour June 23, the Eagles will play at Penn State and in Hartford, Conn., and Long Island, N.Y. The band will then spend a month touring Canada and Europe. by CNB