The class of eigenvalue problems for upper Hessenberg matrices of banded-plus-spike form includes companion and comrade matrices as special cases. For this class of matrices a factored form is developed in which the matrix is represented as a product of essentially 2×2 matrices and a banded upper-triangular matrix. A non-unitary analogue of Francis's implicitly-shifted QR algorithm that preserves the factored form and consequently computes the eigenvalues in O(n 2) time and O(n) space is developed. Inexpensive a posteriori tests for stability and accuracy are performed as part of the algorithm. The results of numerical experiments are mixed but promising in certain areas. The single-shift version of the code applied to companion matrices is much faster than the nearest competitor. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.