Peace. Love. Music. All three are old hippie symbols of the 6-‘s that still hold true for a lot of people today; especially for one Ringo Starr. Remember him? He was the funny Beatle with the classic nose, the Caveman who bungled around prehistoric times, the happy showman singing songs with a not-so-classic voice. But who doesn’t love a Beatle? Who doesn’t love Ringo Starr?
Every few years he has assembled a hodgepodge of musicians to go out on the road with him and canoodle out fun songs from their past. The sold out performance in Biloxi recently proved that Ringo loves what he does and has fun doing it. He seemed so laid back, whipping off jokes while begging good-naturedly for everyone, “anyone please”, to buy his latest album.
The 2010 lineup of All Starrs include the great Edgar Winter, the still hot-fingered guitarist Rick Derringer, Richard Page of Mr. Mister, Gary Wright, former Romantic Wally Palmer, and Gregg Bissonette who drummed behind another famous front-man by the name of David Lee Roth.
That said, the vibe in the theatre was of good wholesome fun; the kind you used to have going to a concert way back in the day before, well, the Fab Four decided to stir things up a bit. The crowd, a mixture of young, old and very young, sang and danced and held up glittery signs of affection for the 70 year old drummer. There were even a few wannabe Sgt Peppers walking around in costumes of red and gold.
The show itself was 22 songs of energetic fun. Kicking off with “It Don’t Come Easy”, “Honey Don’t” and “Choose Love”, where Ringo finally went behind his kit to bang on the drums while Rick Derringer percolated out a high energy guitar solo, the set was splattered with the most popular hits by his featured band mates. “Hang On Sloopy” by Derringer’s old band The McCoys actually knocked The Beatles out of the number one position back in 1965, Edgar Winter’s out of this world “Frankenstein”, The Romantics’ “What I Like About You” that had the crowd shouting “hey” in all the right places, Richard Page’s pop hit from the eighties “Broken Wings”, and Gary Wright’s soaring “Dream Weaver” were just a few.
The first big highlight, other than Ringo actually walking out onto the stage with peace signs waving, was the Edgar Winter hit “Free Ride”. Introduced by Rick as being “as trashy as ever” in a play on Edgar’s former band White Trash, Edgar responded that he didn’t know about that but “he was just as white as ever.” Strapping on his keyboard to be front and center, the song just kicked it. “And we’re just starting to warm up,” he told an enthusiastic crowd.
Although not a big fan of The Romantics, “Talking In Your Sleep” brought a gunfight of licks traded between Edgar’s sax and Rick’s guitar that just tore it up. And on the latter’s own “Rock & Roll Hoochie Coo”, just when you thought you were about to climax, Rick stepped to the front and went on a fretting frenzy that culminated in some Eddie Van Halen-style finger tapping before releasing us with the final line.
Gary Wright did surprise me. The man is 67 years old and his voice was as crystal clear as it ever was on “Dream Weaver” and he hit all the high notes with such ease. Explaining how the song originated, he told us that George Harrison had given him a book about Hinduism and India that opened his mind. Ringo being Ringo quipped from behind his drums that “George never bought me no damn books”.
Ah good ole Ringo. He had a retort for everything. For “Yellow Submarine” he said that “if you don’t know this song, you don’t belong here”. And for the last tune of the evening, “With A Little Help From My Friends”, he mentioned that this one maybe wasn’t cutting it on the tour, so he was “just going to toss it if it doesn’t get a good reaction tonight”. And did I mention that he wanted to know if anyone had bought his new album Y NOT? He gave a shout out to “the 5 people over there that did”.
Dressed all in black and never removing his trademark shades, Ringo was spry and loved throwing the peace sign up. After introducing his band about mid-way through the two hour show, he “didn’t want to leave out anyone – what’s my name?” which garnered loud shouts of “Ringo!!” before someone started a “Happy Birthday” sing-a-long.
His “mini biography” song “The Other Side Of Liverpool” from the new album is actually very good and with these guys backing him, it became memorable. Peace. Love. Music.
SETLIST
It Don’t Come Easy, Honey Don’t, Choose Love, Hang On Sloopy, Free Ride, Talking In Your Sleep, I Wanna Be Your Man, Dream Weaver, Kyrie, The Other Side Of Liverpool, Yellow Submarine, Frankenstein, Peace Dream, Back Off Boogaloo, What I Like About You, Rock & Roll Hoochie Coo, Boys, Love Is Alive, Broken Wings, Photograph, Act Naturally, With A Little Help From My Friends/Give Peace A Chance
Photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough
