Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Stop and Smell the Carrot-Coloured Roses

This story comes from issue #12 (from 1995) of the Tokyo Beatles Fan Club Magazine.  When Ringo and the All Starr Band toured Japan in June of that year, the HMV Record Shop help a contest called "Meet! Ringo!"   To enter the contest you had to purchase a Ringo Cd from the HMV shop.  There were three prizes.  The "A" prize was an invitation to go backstage to meet Ringo before the concert on the 24th, 26th and 27th of June (there was one winner and a guest allowed per concert), the "B" prize was tickets to one of the concerts, and the "C" prize was an autographed program.  This story was written by Hirofumi Sasaki who won the "A" prize!   Well actually his sister won the prize, but he put her name on the ticket and both of them went backstage.   It must have been difficult meeting Ringo with the help of an interpreter, but it sounds like Hirofumi had a memorable meeting!




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

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