Ringo Too Busy For a Reunion (1976)

 Ringo Too Busy for a Reunion

By Paul Gambaccini

King Features

October 24, 1976

Paris.

     "I was shown it at breakfast," said Ringo Starr, dismissing promoters Sid Bernstein's $230 million proposal for a Beatles reunion. "It's too long to read."

     "I will work with any of them," he said, pointing to a copy of his new LP,  Ringo's Rotogravure (On which fellow ex-Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney appear.) "But I don't want to do it right now. I'm doing my album. Paul's out there with Wings. John doesn't want to do anything for a while. George, I haven't seen in two months. I don't know what he's up to."

     Ringo sipped another glass of wine. Shortly, he would leave his suite at Hotel George V to give a press conference with a horde of French journalists. It was in this hotel 12 years ago that the Beatles first learned that "I Want to Hold Your Hand".had reached number one in America.

     Now the subject turned to the recent Beatles reissues. "EMI put out all the singles in Britain, which I thought was wonderful," Starr said, smiling and referring to the release of 24 Beatles, 45s that briefly dominated the BBC charts. "Then there's Capitol, who put out Rock and Roll Music. John and I tried to have it stopped. The cover was disgusting. John even said he'd do them a new cover. It made us look cheap, and we were never cheap. We were the 60s. All that Coca-Cola and cars with big fins were the 50s.

     I was also annoyed they didn't call us and ask what we thought of the running order. No courtesy at all was shown to us. Just because we're not on the label, you don't treat us like dogs." (When contacted for a response, capital A&R head Rupert Perry was "unavailable for comment").

     The Beatles could resent the album for another reason, the royalties were lower than for any other solo work. "We went back to the original royalty rate on the album," Ringo explained. "In those days, it was all right, but now it's a silly rate. No one would sign for that if they were blind, deaf, and dumb."

     It is money that keeps Starr away from his homeland, a British tax exile, he has placed his home in England on the market, and divides much of his time between a rented house in Los Angeles and an apartment in Monte Carlo, his declared residence. 

    "It's silly now he said, all those people say, 'we made you.' Made what? I worked in factories, worked on the railways, worked in the Navy. I put a lot of money back into the country. I've decided to take some for me now, thank you."

     Ringo's Rotogravure will put a few more pence in his pocket. The LP was produced by Arif Mardin, the much-celebrated Atlantic Records producer who recently scored with the Bee Gees' Main Course. Mardin replaced Richard Perry, but Starr denied a rift. "Our relationship is not exhausted," Ringo insisted. "I have this belief that if something doesn't come together, I'm not supposed to do it. With Richard, it was really on and off again because he was so busy. We're still good friends. If he has sessions, he can ring up and I'll say yes or no."

     Starr appeared on Perry's recent Manhattan Transfer release, Coming Out. Mardin retained one Perry trademark, the attention-getting practice of featuring major guest artists. Peter Frampton appears on the first single from the album, "A Dose of Rock and Roll", while Eric Clapton and Dr John play on other cuts. The recording session wasn't the first time that he and Frampton had worked together. "I knew him when he was very nervous," said Ringo, playing me the songs for his first album".

     Starr later played on two of those LPS tracks. "He was nice when we met this last time in Los Angeles. He offered to fly his whole band down. Los Angeles is like that. People come in and out. If Eric Clapton hadn't been working there, he wouldn't have been on this album. If Paul's tour hadn't been a month later, he wouldn't have been on it."

     Ringo said he was looking forward to recording another album. He's also hoping at least one of three proposed movie projects will become a reality in 1977, but he still knows where his bread is buttered. "75% of my recognition is still from being a Beatle. 25% is me and my records, but it is getting better. Mark Boland told me a girl asked him about that new artist, Ringo Starr."