Stop and Smell the Carrot-coloured roses!
The Backstage Report, 24th June 1995
By Hirofumi Sasaki
One of my friends told me on the phone about HMV’s campaign
so I applied for the drawing with my sister’s name. They informed us on 18th of June
that we had won the A prize, it was about only a week before the day. On that day, the 18th, I went all
through the way from Saitama to Osaka to see Ringo’s show and I came back to my
home at midnight. When I returned home,
there was a message from my sister saying that we got the A prize! My heart was jumping. A long time dream had come true, but I couldn’t
imagine what to do. Then the weeks
passed by swiftly.
We were told to come to the hall buy 5:30pm, It was one and
a half hours earlier than the opening time.
We went there with a bunch of roses, which my sister bought, she got them
because she likes the “Stop and Smell the roses” album. While we were waiting, we could hear an
interesting story from a man in charge.
He said that the article in the paper which said, “Ringo is enthusiastic
about eating carrots for health reasons” was true and that on that day there
were 5 or 6 carrots piled up in Ringo’s room.
It is said that Ringo takes them as juice, salad or sometimes eats them
raw.
Then came the time to go in.
When we were lead behind the door, I almost cried, “wow! He’s John Entwistle! Mark Farner is there!” I was keyed up. The place was the area for the performers to
stand by. I found three dressing rooms at
the opposite side; the right room was for non-smokers (Max and Randy used it),
the middle for was smokers (John and Zak used it) and the left room was for
Ringo. There was a piece of paper on the
door which said, “Mr. Ringo Starr.” They
made us sit and wait in front of Ringo’s room for a while. Then a big man came out of the room and said
something to us but I didn’t understand what he said. When I saw the direction he gesticulated, I
found Ringo standing there!
We stood up surprisingly.
Ringo said gently, ‘how do you do?
Hi!” and stretched his hand. My
sister said, “Nice to meet you” or something like that. All I could say was, “Ah, Domo (Well,
hi). Ringo wore a white shirt, black
jeans and a red cap with a logo of “Ichiban (the first, or the greatest).” My first impression was that he was of small
stature. Usually Japanese people are
shorter than European people and I am a short man in comparison to other Japanese
people. But Ringo was as short as I
am. When I shook hands with him I
thought his hand might be smaller than mine.
But his head was so small. I
think that is why he looks so great on stage.
After shaking hands, he spoke something that we couldn’t understand; it
was kind of “congratulations on winning the HMV contest” according to an
interpreter. Then he asked, “Feeling
good?” of course I could understand
it. When I answered, “Yes, I’m feeling
very good. But I am not good at speaking
English so I don’t know what to say.” He
said, “Me too, I wish I could speak Japanese!”
When I said that we had been fans for 20 years, he said, “Oh you’re not
even 20 yet!” I told him that my sister
has a child. Then Ringo said, “I think
she is 16 or 17.” I thought this was a
big compliment but my sister was simply pleased to hear it and Ringo watched
this and laughed. When she complimented
too, saying “You are very young too,” he answered, “But I have many children.”
Then we passed a bunch of flowers to him saying, “We wanted
carrot cakes but we couldn’t ‘find them.” He said, “In Japan they don’t make
much carrot cake. But they are
beautiful. Thank you.” She then said without delay, “We looked for
carrot coloured roses instead” which made him laugh. And when I said “Happy birthday,” he said “Thank
you, Domo (thanks in Japanese).
Then I gave Ring copies of the Tokyo Beatles Fan Club Magazine,
the 5th and 10th issues.
These were presents from TBFC staff.
When I showed him an article on his last tour in the 5th
issue, he received them with a surprised look.
Then he said, “I must go now. Enjoy the show, okay?” It seemed that time was running out so I
asked him to give some autographs and produced 2 LP’s. Ringo signed on them slowly, saying “Oh, this
is a good record.” When I said that I
had been to his previous concerts, he said, “Oh wow, so you know exactly what
we do. Which song did you like?” and I answered, “Photograph.” Then he stepped with that familiar pose
leaning forward and sang a bit of “Photograph” for us! We asked permission to take a photo, he
replied yes. Ringo said, “Peace and
love, ha ha ha…” with a peace sign.
After that he shook hand with us again saying, “Thank you. Domo.” And was back again with a bunch of
roses and copies of the TBFC magazine to his dressing room.
After we saw Ringo, we met Billy Preston who was sitting on
a bench. What I said that I had seen the
previous shows, he clapped his hands for joy with an exaggerated gesture. We took a photo with him too but the flash
bulb didn’t explode. Billy said in a
loud voice, “No flaaaaash!” I tried once
again but it didn’t go off. He said with
a bewildered look, “Maybe it’s okay.” We
thanked him and left.
The concert began one hour after our encounter. Ringo was singing with a microphone in his
hand and Billy was playing as always.
When I watched them, I had a strange feeling and I had to ask myself if
the encounter was real. It was not an
ordinary experience, it felt unreal but when I looked at the photo and the
autograph they reminded me of the encounter.
I thank all the staff who were always so kind to
us, Billy an
Beautiful, aawwwwww, I love this stuff!
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