Ringo Starr finally set to be knighted in New Year's Honours list

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Beatles star Ringo Starr finally set to be knighted in New Year's Honours list
Keith Perry
Irish Mirror
December 24 2017

Ringo Starr will be knighted in the New Year’s Honours, it was reported tonight.

The Beatles drummer, 77, will receive given the gong for services to music and charity.

Ringo, given an MBE in 1965, is said to be thrilled, according to the Sun on Sunday.

He will return to Buckingham Palace for the knighthood 52 years after getting his MBE.

The honour comes after bandmate Sir Paul McCartney urged the Queen: “Look, love it’s about time.”

Paul and Ringo at the London premiere of "Eight Days a Week." (Photo by Simon Rogers)

Macca was knighted in 1997 but Ringo, 77, had given up all hope before a letter arrived from the Palace a few weeks ago.

His knighthood, for lifetime services to music and charity, in the New Year’s Honours will be formally announced next week.

The musician, real name Richard Starkey, got his first drum kit as a Christmas present aged 17.

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Credits: Getty

Within five years he was part of the biggest band in the world.

His last visit to the Palace was in 1965 when all the Fab Four were awarded the MBE.

Sir Paul, 75, had told of his frustration for his pal in an interview.

When it was suggested he could ask the Queen to knight Ringo, Macca replied: “The last time I went by she was out.

"Otherwise, I would have popped in and said ‘Look, love, Sir Richard Starkey’. Because I do think it’s about time.”

Ringo, who is said to be worth £300million, was born and raised in a two-up, two-down terraced house in Madryn Street, Liverpool. His father was a docker and his mum worked in a bakery.

His parents divorced when he was three and his childhood was dogged by illness.

He missed so much schooling that by 15, he could barely read or write. But he had an aptitude for woodwork, mechanics and music.

He took early jobs as a delivery boy, a trainee joiner and a barman on the Mersey ferries.

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Rex

His dream came true when his stepfather bought him a drum kit for Christmas 1957, and he promised to be “the best drummer ever”.

By the time the Beatles were formed, Ringo was already on the tour circuit with the successful band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

The Fab Four’s manager Brian Epstein poached him to replace Pete Best as drummer in 1962 and the group hit international fame.

While most of the songwriting was the genius of Lennon and McCartney, Ringo had more than his fair share of input.

He is credited with inventing the phrase A Hard Day’s Night which became a hit single, album and film.

He also made a new career in TV and film and narrated cartoon Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Ringo married long-time sweetheart Maureen Cox in 1965, with whom he had three children Zak, Jason and Lee.

Zak followed in his dad’s footsteps to become a drummer, playing with The Who and Oasis.

The couple split in 1975 and he married actress Barbara Bach, who played a Bond girl in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.

Ringo sold his 200-acre estate in Cranleigh, Surrey, for a reputed £20million in 2014.

He now divides his time between Switzerland and California.

Ex-bandmate Lennon was murdered by gunman Mark David Chapman at his New York home in 1980 aged 40. Harrison died aged 58 from lung cancer in 2001.