RINGO

On display is 'Telephone Book Carving - Ringo Starr', drummer of te Beatles,, by Alex Queral of Philadelphia, who carves life like portraits out of telephone books, at the newly renovated Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood on January 18, 2012 in California. Visitors to the famed strip of Hollywood Boulevard can now visit both floors of the museum, currently undergoing s soft opening, in the historic Hollywood building which dates back to the 1920's with all new galleries, shows and some 200 brand new never before displayed exhibits.



British musician and former Beatle Ringo Starr performs onstage at a studio hanger to launch the dates that he and his All Starr band will tour Europe, in the summer of 2011, in Dunsfold, England, Wednesday, June 1, 2011. The 28 date tour kicks off in Kiev and concludes in Vienna, on the 17 July.



British musician Ringo Starr poses for photographers at a press conference to unveil his 'knotted gun' statue to mark 'The Non Violence Project' campaign on the anniversary of John Lennon's death, at a central London venue, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011.



British musician Ringo Starr poses for photographers at a press conference to unveil his 'knotted gun' statue to mark 'The Non Violence Project' campaign on the anniversary of John Lennon's death, at a central London venue, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011.



British musician Ringo Starr poses for photographers at a press conference to unveil his 'knotted gun' statue to mark 'The Non Violence Project' campaign on the anniversary of John Lennon's death, at a central London venue, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Comedian Russell Brand and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand and Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Producer Don Was and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand And Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Comedian Russell Brand and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand and Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Comedian Russell Brand and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand and Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Producer Don Was and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand And Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Comedian Russell Brand and Ringo Starr on stage at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand and Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: (L-R) Musicians Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr perform at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand And Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: Musicians Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr perform at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand And Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.



WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 30: (L-R) Musicians Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr perform at 'SiriusXM's Town Hall With Ringo Starr' And Host Russell Brand And Moderator Don Was Live On SiriusXM's The Spectrum Channel performs at Troubadour on January 30, 2012 in West Hollywood, California.

RINGO VIDEO USA TODAY

Ringo Starr stays positive

www.usatoday.com

Ringo Starr stays positive on 17th solo album 'Ringo 2012'

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

BEVERLY HILLS – "This is an anthem of peace and love," Ringo Starr sings with irony-free fervor on the opening track of his 17th solo album.

It's a fitting sentiment from the celebrated drummer who flashes a peace sign at the click of a camera shutter and wears the hippie-era mantra like a second skin. Sometimes literally. Today, lounging on the patio of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite, he's sporting a "peace and love" T-shirt as part of a natty ensemble that's casual chic from the shades and earrings to the black-and-white high tops.

"It is a commitment," says Starr, looking a generation younger than his 71 years. "We finish every show with Give Peace a Chance. I've been put down so bad for saying 'Peace and love.' This is what I do. I'd love the world to be peace and love. That's my dream."

He makes no apologies for the signature cheer and optimism that infuse the nine-track Ringo 2012, out Tuesday.

"If there's a choice, I choose the positive," he says. "Me being negative is not going to make the world better."

The follow-up to 2010's Y Not was recorded in early 2011 in the guesthouse of his Los Angeles home and compiles five originals, remakes of his own Wings andStep Lightly and covers of Lead Belly classic Rock Island Line and Buddy Holly's Think It Over. Starr produced 2012 with a little help from such friends as Dave Stewart,Van Dyke Parks, Charlie Haden, Benmont Tench, Don Was and Joe Walsh, as well as new recruit Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

He submits his third in a series of hometown flashbacks that started with the title track from 2008's Liverpool 8. In Liverpool reflects on The Beatles' early days of skipping school and playing the Iron Door Club.

"That's my life, and no one else can write that," he says. A fourth may be in the offing, if the mood strikes. Writing songs "is not a struggle. I don't think any song took more than two hours. On Y Not and this, it started with me holding down a key on the synthesizer, a note and some sort of rhythm pattern. Then I play drums to that and maracas or piano and a bit of guitar. There's no song yet. It's like working in reverse, writing the song after the arrangement."

Beatles loom large

Undaunted by The Beatles' towering shadow, Starr released two solo albums in 1970, the year the band broke up.

"It's a shadow or a bright light, whichever way you want to look at it," he says. "The downside is you want to be famous, but when you are, you want it to stop. It never stops with The Beatles."

Constant scrutiny often cast Starr as deficient. Asked whether he believed Starr was the world's best drummer, John Lennon famously quipped, "He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles!" Starr is the only solo Beatle not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Say that louder!" Starr says with a laugh. "There's no animosity. It will happen when it happens. There are people in there who weren't rock 'n' roll, so it's lost its path, anyway."

Any lingering doubts about Starr's talents seemed to vanish with 2009's Beatles remasters. Last year, Rolling Stone ranked him fifth among history's best drummers.

"I love the remasters because now people can hear me," he says. "It used to be John, Paul, George and Ringo. And why not? Look at those writers. Now people say, 'Oh, maybe he could play.' It never stopped me because I knew from hanging out with musicians that my part on those records was always appreciated."

In an era of showy rock drummers like Ginger Baker and Keith Moon, Starr always saw his role as supportive.

"I don't listen to records for the drums," says Starr, who has bought only one drum record in his life: Cozy Cole's 1958 Topsy single. "John Bonham's incredible solos didn't knock me out. I don't feel you need solos. You need to feel emotion in the track. It's no good calling me if you like modern jazz. I play pop and rock. I support the song. I can hold steady time."

An understatement, says bass player Don Was, who has produced records for Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Lucinda Williams and now is helming albums by John Mayer and Kris Kristofferson.

"You wouldn't have had The Beatles without Ringo," says Was, who first worked with Starr in 1993. "I'm talking about the feel of his drumming. There's such a humanity to his playing. I don't think any drummer today would demean his contribution. He brought real lyricism to rock 'n' roll playing. The first time I heard him in the studio, I understood totally that without Ringo, those Beatles records would have been cold."

Over the years, Starr has matured into "an astute recordmaker," Was adds. "He makes 21st-century-sounding records, but you can tell he was raised on '50s rock 'n' roll. It has an irrefutable groove. And he's a swinging drummer. It's a joy to work with a guy like that."

Starr's self-effacing charm did little to promote his status as a pioneer of percussion, says Beatles scholar Martin Lewis, the U.S. marketing strategist for The Beatles Anthology.

"You can tell Ringo what a groundbreaking drummer he was, and he'll say, 'We were a great little band,' " Lewis says. "It's not fake humility."

Drummer's legacy

By mid-1965, The Beatles, fueled by the masterful songwriting of Paul McCartney and Lennon, had evolved from a tight live band into a superb, creative recording act. And Ringo didn't miss a beat, Lewis says

"Pete Best could have drummed effectively the first three years, but when The Beatles crossed that divide on Revolver, he and 99.9% of other drummers could not have gone across that line," Lewis says. "Ringo did. Listen to Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day in the Life. This is the same drummer from She Loves You? That was the genius of The Beatles. There was no weak link."

In one aspect, Starr never left The Beatles. Sustaining their legacy remains a consuming joy and duty, despite a void left by the deaths of Lennon and George Harrison.

"We only have so much product, and there's never going to be any more," Starr says. "There was no more even in the '70s. But we can move into the future. Now you can download The Beatles.

"You can have fun playing a disco song, but only once in a blue moon. The Beatles' songs and arrangements hold up and sound modern. "

Starr, a recovering alcoholic, credits Barbara Bach, his wife of nearly 31 years, for much of his stability and contentment.

"There have been bad times, but I don't care how bad it gets as long as it's me and her," he says. "I love the woman. She loves me. Some days, I tell her, 'You've got to leave me.I want to leave me.' She says, 'I'll never leave you.' There's nothing better."

More than a half-century after the Fab Four first played together in Hamburg and 43 years to the day since their last performance on the Apple rooftop in London, Starr is gearing up for his 12th tour with his All-Starr Band of revolving hitmakers, a tradition since 1989. Slow down? Not yet.

"As long as I can hold the sticks, I can play," he says. "I want to put a jam band together, where we do a two-minute song and a 40-minute fade like the Grateful Dead. I joke that I'll end up in a blues band and play very, very slow."

EnlargeBy Robert Hanashiro, , USA TODAY

By Robert Hanashiro,  USA Today

Signature sign: At 71, Ringo Starr is still making music, still touring and still promoting the ideals of the 1960s.

My Dad Inspired The Beatles

www.contactmusic.com

Sir Paul Mccartney: My Dad Inspired The Beatles

30 January 2012

Sir Paul McCartney says his father was one of the main inspirations behind the sound of the Beatles.

Sir Paul McCartney says his father is responsible for the sound of the Beatles.

The 69-year-old musician praises his dad James - a keen amateur piano player - for introducing him to music growing up in Liverpool when the family had to make their own entertainment.

He explained to Culture magazine: "My first musical memories come from my dad. He would play the piano at home - he and his friend Freddie Rimmer, both of whom worked at the cotton exchange in Liverpool as salesmen. This was the old days, you know. We made our own entertainment because we didn't have anything else. And those old memories for me are of my dad playing the piano. I would lie on the carpet listening to him and taking it all in."

Paul revealed his father's influence stayed with him as he and John Lennon began writing for the Beatles.

He said: "A lot of what informed the writing I did with John is that early period, and John and I shared that. When we started to talk about that music, John would say 'Oh I love such and such a song.' We didn't like rock'n'roll solely. And I think now if you look at the Beatles body of work it was sort of rock'n'roll informed by this back plot from this complete other era."

Linda talks about John & Paul's close relationship

RINGO NOW

www.examiner.com

Ringo Starr Sirius Town Hall meeting airing now, to be repeated

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner

JANUARY 30, 2012

“SiriusXM's Town Hall with Ringo Starr" is airing live on The Spectrum (SiriusXM channel 28) at 4 p.m. ET today (Jan. 30). 

The event will feature an Q&A session with a select group of SiriusXM subscribers plus a live performance by Ringo and his band at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

Actor Russell Brand will host the Q&A and producer Don Was will moderate the event. 

You can download an 8.5x11 poster for the event at www.siriusxm.com/ringostarrposter .

The show will also be repeated several times after the live broadcast at 6 p.m. ET Jan. 31, noon ET Feb. 1, 9 p.m. ET Feb. 3 and 2 p.m. ET Feb. 4.

Sirius is also offering a free online trial at their website at  http://www.siriusxm.com/freetrial?campaign=RINGO7 

Ringo Starr

Credits: 

Barbara Bach

James on Letterman tonight

www.beatlesnews.com
James McCartney makes US TV debut on Letterman tonight
Posted by Adam Forrest on Monday, 01/30/12 8:56 am

James McCartney is set to make his US national television debut on Late Show with David Letterman tonight, January 30th. He'll also be playing at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall February 1st.

McCartney's appearances celebrate the recent release of "The Complete EP Collection" on Engine Company records, which combines McCartney's two previous EP's with five never-heard bonus tracks. The special two-disc set was produced by David Kahne and Paul McCartney. Critics praise his songs' "strong pop hooks" (Rolling Stone) and "many bold, original touches" (Times of London).

Admission to James' performance at Rockwood Music Hall on February 1st is free. For more information, visit www.rockwoodmusichall.com.

The Beatles - Rooftop Concert (Full Version)

RINGO PROMOTE NEW ALBUM

www.examiner.com

Ringo Starr plans intense media blitz over next few days to promote new album

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner

JANUARY 28, 2012

Ringo Starr, getting ready for the release of his new album "Ringo 2012" Jan. 31 in the U.S., will be all over TV and radio starting Sunday. Here's a rundown of where you can catch him. 

On Sunday, he'll be a guest on Chris Carter's "Breakfast With the Beatles" on KLOS-FM sometime between 11 a.m. and noon PT, host Chris Carter told us. The show will be streamed online on www.955klos.com.

On Monday, Jan. 30, he'll be at the Troubadour (yes, the same club that was the site of John Lennon's infamous "Lost Weekend" incident) for a Town Hall interview by Russell Brand and selected fans. The radio event, sponsored by SiriusXM, will be moderated by record producer (and Ringo friend) Don Was. 

On Tuesday, Jan. 31, the day his new album "Ringo 2012" is released, he'll be the headliner on "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson"  on CBS, the network has announced.  Ringo will be the only guest on the show that night and will perform and chat with Ferguson. 

 

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, he'll be a guest on "Conan" on TBS. The network says that besides Ringo, Mark "Dr. Bugs" Moffett will be another guest on the show.

 

"Ringo 2012," produced by Starr, features nine songs including covers of Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" and Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line" plus new versions of two songs from past albums, "Wings" and "Step Lightly." Performers on the album include Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Edgar Winter, Charlie Haden, Van Dyke Parks and Don Was. 

 

Amazon.com has an exclusive deluxe version of the album with an added DVD. The album is also available in import versions from the UK,Japan and Canada.

Ringo Starr

Credits: 

Henry Diltz

JAMES LIVE AT THE VIPER ROOM January 2012

RINGO WITH JAMES

www.examiner.com

Ringo Starr attends club show by fellow Beatle's son

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner

JANUARY 28, 2012

There was a Beatle in the audience for James McCartney's show at the Viper Room in Hollywood Friday night, but it wasn't his dad Paul McCartney. 

Chris Carter, host of "Chris Carter's 'Breakfast With the Beatles" on SiriusXM and KLOS-FM, tells us Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, his brother-in-law Joe Walsh, Ringo's wife Barbara Bach and Joe's wife, Marjorie Bach, Barbara's sister, all were at the younger McCartney's show at Hollywood's Viper Room. "They seem to enjoy James," Carter told us. 

While in Los Angeles, McCartney appeared on local station KTTV's "Good Day LA". 

Ringo, who's about to release a new album "Ringo 2012,"  will be a guest on "Breakfast With the Beatles" on KLOS-FM Sunday between 11 a.m. and noon PT (2-3 p.m. ET) during an hour of what Carter calls "Ringo Starrtime." Those outside of Los Angeles can hear the show online at www.955klos.com.

Ringo will also be at the Troubadour Monday afternoon playing with Joe Walsh for the Sirius/XM Town Hall meeting where he'll also be interviewed by actor Russell Brand and some SiriusXM listeners.  

Meanwhile, James McCartney will be in New York Monday night. He'll be making his U.S. TV debut that night on "Late Show With David Letterman" on CBS. 

James McCartney

Credits: 

Getty Images

RINGO AND JAMES IN HOLLYWOOD

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Ringo shows up to enjoy James McCartney in Hollywood
Posted by Adam Forrest on Saturday, 01/28/12

We had the pleasure to attend James McCartney's live performance at the Viper Club in Hollywood last night.

Waiting outside for James to arrive for the gig, the fans were surprised to see him get out of the car with Joe Walsh along with Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr!

James McCartney and Ringo Starr outside the Viper Room

James packed the room, the fans were excited and responsive to James and his band. James played a few new songs, and several songs from his two EPs, Available Light and Close At Hand.

James McCartney on stage at the Viper Room

The crowd's favorites were when James played his cover of Neil Young's "Old Man" and his hit single from the Available Light EP, "Angel".

If James is ever playing near you and you have opportunity to go, I highly recommend it, you will have a great time!

Photos thanks to Gillian Lomax, voice of the Beatles news and purveyor of A Magical History Tour in Los Angeles.

Paul gets back to where he once belonged

www.theglobeandmail.com
Paul gets back to where he once belonged

ELIZABETH RENZETTI

London— From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Published Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012

When you consider who Paul McCartney might be jealous of, the list seems rather short. Nelson Mandela? Mick Jagger? God? He doesn’t have a lot of rivals in the most-beloved, putting-smiles-on-people’s-faces-for-50-years category. So the answer’s a bit of a shock, because it turns out that the person Sir Paul is fretting over is Rod Stewart.

Yes, the king of tight pants and young wives, that Rod Stewart. It seems that for years McCartney has wanted to record an album of standards, but each time he thought about it, he backed away, because you-know-who had been there first.

“It’s difficult when you use old songs, like Cheek to Cheek or The Way You Look Tonight,” said McCartney, talking to reporters last week in London. “Rod Stewart’s done them all. That’s really why I didn’t do the album – I though, Rod’s already done all the songs!”

However, it turns out the classic songbook has enough pages to go around, and on Feb. 7, McCartney will release his own contribution to the genre, an album he recorded with Diana Krall and her band, called Kisses on the Bottom. (I think we can all agree that’s probably the worst record title in the history of recorded music, and move on.)

Well, perhaps we shouldn’t move on without an explanation: The title is ripped not from a Dutch porno of the 1970s, but is instead a lyric from the first track on the record, a 1935 Fats Waller hit called I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.

Young McCartney loved Waller when he was growing up in Liverpool and listened to that record over and over. Indeed, Kisses on the Bottom is in many ways a trip back to his boyhood. Perhaps there was always a bit of the old gent about Paul, even when he was young. His songwriting with the Beatles was inspired by the craftsmanship of the great American songbook. (He cites, in particular, Here, There and Everywhere from Revolver.) He modelled his singing voice, oddly enough, on Fred Astaire’s. Also his jackets; he told the tailor making those Sgt. Pepper’s-era uniforms to take in the sleeves, so they’d look more like Astaire’s.

Of the 14 tracks on the new record, only two are new McCartney compositions. The other dozen are covers of songs that either inspired his own writing, or remind him of his father, who would sing and play piano while Paul listened.

“Quite a few of these were songs I’d hear when I was lying on the carpet listening to him,” says McCartney, 69, and begins to sing one of the numbers from the new record, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s It’s Only a Paper Moon. He breaks into song quite often during the interview, which causes a whole group of quarrelsome journalists to fall magically silent. It’s not just singing, either: He hums, whistles and imitates the sound made by a huge crowd in an arena.

In fact, he arrives at the hotel whistling. You can hear him coming down the corridor moments before he shows up, cheery, fresh-faced, with his hair a colour reminiscent of those commercials in which Rocket Richard got “two minutes for looking so good.” If anyone has reason to whistle, it’s him. Apart from, you know, being Paul McCartney, he’s come off a hugely successful tour of South America last year and a happy time in the studio with Krall and her band, an “organic” recording experience that he likens to recording with the Beatles. He’s going to be performing at the Grammys next month, along with Coldplay, a band he likes, “although I don’t think they’re as good as the Beatles.” A featured spot during the Olympics in July seems likely, too.

As well, there’s smooth sailing on the domestic front. One of his daughters, Mary, took the photographs for the new record, and he chose one of the songs on it, More I Cannot Wish You, because of his youngest child, Beatrice. “I find that a very emotional song,” he says, “because it’s a parent talking to a young girl, and I’m raising an eight-year-old girl at the moment.”

No mention is made of Beatrice’s mother, Heather Mills, McCartney’s second wife, from whom he had an acrimonious divorce in 2008. He’s much more forthcoming about his new wife, Nancy Shevell, and how she inspired the lovely new song My Valentine. (His old friend Eric Clapton also plays on the track.)

“We were on holiday in Morocco, and it was raining,” McCartney says. “I said to her, ‘It’s going to spoil the holiday.’ And she said, ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s great. We’re having a good time.’ ”

So he went downstairs to the piano in the hotel’s restaurant, where during the evening a crooner sat playing the standards he loves so much. And there, among the waiters clearing away lunchtime dishes, he spent a few afternoons writing the song.

“I would just play, and this song came out. It almost wrote itself, which some of the best songs do.” He begins to sing again: “What if it rains? We didn’t care....”

And once again, he accomplishes the near-impossible and manages to silence a room full of journalists.

Paul McCartney at a press conference at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, Sept. 7, 1964.

Boris Spremo / The Globe and Mail