A ‘Starry Night’ with Ringo
Age hasn’t stopped Ringo Starr, who’s looking fit and trim, from recording, touring, painting, photographing, doing artsy things and supporting institutions. His voice isn’t as resonant as before, and his pitch is lower. But the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer isn’t quite ready to give up his sticks. His legion of fans won’t let him.
MANILA, Philippines — Las Vegas. For close to two hours, Ringo Starr hardly looked his age at 85 as he sang, drummed, danced and even did jumping jacks before a sell-out audience at the 1,800-seat Venetian Theater here in the course of an 11-show, six-city US fall tour.
Ringo is in the 36th year of performing with the 16th edition of his All-Starr Band, a gathering of rock legends from past decades to add spice to a varied set list. In all, Ringo sang 12 songs, two of which he sat behind his Ludwig drum kit. The other 10 songs on the repertoire were delivered by Men At Work’s Colin Hay, Toto’s Steve Lukather and Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart.
Throughout the concert, Ringo kept flashing the peace sign, raising two fingers to remind fans what he has been all about from his early days with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to The Beatles years and to the solo era dating back to 1970 up to today.
The shindig began exactly at 8:30 p.m. with Ringo belting out Honey Don’t, a Carl Perkins composition from 1964’s “Beatles For Sale” album. Wearing shades and a round-neck black T-shirt with an emblazoned peace symbol, he then did It Don’t Come Easy, a 1971 single that reached No. 4 in the US and UK charts.
Ringo next moved up to an elevated dais to drum to Toto’s Rosanna with Lukather on vocals. Stuart followed with the instrumental Pick Up The Pieces and Hay did Men At Work’s Down Under. Ringo sang and drummed to Boys, a track on the 1963 Beatles album “Please Please Me,” which he said, “I sang with the Hurricanes before I joined that other band.”
From behind the drums, Ringo jumped back on stage to do a John Lennon song, I’m The Greatest. Ringo said Lennon wrote it for him to sing on his 1973 solo album. With the fans applauding animatedly after every song, Ringo said, “We should play here more often” and went straight to Yellow Submarine, bringing the crowd to its feet to sing along.
Then, the nine-time Grammy awardee announced he would go to his dressing room for “a cup of tea,” while Stuart broke into Cut The Cake, which included opening chords of songs from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen and Led Zeppelin in what he called a “Magical Musical Moment.”
Back on stage, Ringo made a coat change and asked, “Did you miss me?” Someone in the audience yelled, “Love you, Ringo” and he shot back, “Love you, too, man.”
He continued with Octopus’ Garden, Look Up (the title track from his recently released UK No. 1 album) and The No No Song.
Ringo returned to his drums as Hay sang Overkill, Lukather did Africa and Stuart performed Work To Do. Ringo followed to sing and drum to I Wanna Be Your Man, then Hay did Who Can It Be Now and Lukather, Hold The Line.
Finally, Ringo ended with Photograph, Act Naturally and With A Little Help From My Friends. The encore was Give Peace A Chance.
Outside the theater, Ringo’s staff set up tables to sell books, works of art and memorabilia, including a pair of used drumsticks for $900, a signed drumhead for $1,000 and an autographed drawing of two pistols with knotted barrels, depicting his slogan “Ringo Is Knot For Violence,” for $3,800. “The Starry Night” was one of six shows that Ringo performed at the Venetian. Age hasn’t stopped Ringo, who’s looking fit and trim, from recording, touring, painting, photographing, doing artsy things and supporting institutions like the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and ReBUILDLA to assist those impacted by the California wildfires. His voice isn’t as resonant as before, and his pitch is lower. But the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer isn’t quite ready to give up his sticks. His legion of fans won’t let him.
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