On the House For Ringo! (1986)

 

I know this is a light-hearted story from 1986, but I can't help but feel a little sad reading it and knowing what we know now about Ringo and Barb's alcoholism during this time in their lives.  If they kept drinking like this, neither one of them would be with us today -- or if they were, Ringo wouldn't be able to keep up with touring and jumping jacks on stage.  So let this be a cautionary tale to Beatles fans everywhere—if you're struggling with addiction, get help!  Ringo did, and look how great he is doing today! 

From the Daily Record

May 8. 1986

I saw him standing there

 

Honeymoon to the Tonight Show

 May 6, 1981

Just married and still promoting their movie 

The Night Beatlemania was Born (1981)

 Well, this article from 1981 is quite a mess, isn't it?  We all know that Ringo didn't join the group until 1962 -- to say they weren't popular in Hamburg was not correct, and the concert this whole article was based on -- the Beatles at the Liverpool Empire -- I see no record of that show!    One thing is right -- the Beatles deserved to be recognized and remembered.   I share this just to show you how misinformation was out in the public and taken at face value even in 1981.   At that time, we didn't even have a list of all the concerts the Beatles performed!  (although I am sure that fan did know that Ringo joined in 1962).  This is why Beatle historicians have their work cut out for them.  We have to sift through all the lies to get to the truth.   How many false things do you see in this article?

The Night Beatlemania was Born

By Chris Powell

Reading Evening Post

May 30, 1981

    They had been brought onto the bill as the last moment to replace a beat group that failed to turn up. They were thin, pale, and rebellious, with their rickety amplification gear threatening to short-circuit the theater's powerful system, but that Sunday night in the winter of 1961, show business history was made. Beatlemania had been born, and the management of the Liverpool Empire didn't know what hit them.

     John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had just returned home, broke, bemused, and beaten after a disastrous period playing in Hamburg clubs. Their loud, abrasive, and strangely new beat music had left German fans unmoved, and a change of name from Long John and the Silver Men to the Silver Beatles hadn't helped much either.

     Now billed simply as The Beatles, their new manager, Brian Epstein, had squeezed them into one of the Empire Sunday night pop concerts. From that moment, they were destined to become the biggest sensation in the history of the recording industry. In the Empire that night was Liverpool carpenter John Chambers, today probably the world's greatest fan of the famous Four, and prime mover in a current campaign to get the group immortalized in statues and other memorials. 

    "Looking back over two decades," John told me, "I will never forget that night at the Empire. There must have been a million guys playing guitar around Liverpool in those days, but I'd never seen the sort of reaction the Beatles aroused. The place went absolutely mad. The way the music sent the fans wild was almost magical.

    "I think it's fair to say that The Beatles' legend was created that night, and for me, it's never been broken. "

    The following year, encouraged by Brian Epstein, The Beatles arrived in London. Six months later, they were top of the hit parade, and for the next 10 glittering years, they could do no wrong. John Chambers had recognized the Beatles' potential long before that memorable night at the Liverpool Empire. 

    He had chatted with the group over espresso coffee in Liverpool cafes and listened to their sessions at the city's rock mecca, the dingy Cavern Club. And from the beginning, he was convinced that they would one day become the world's greatest rock group. Today, the Beatles are still legends in their home city. Shrines of the four youngsters who toppled Elvis Presley from his apparently impregnable throne as King of Rock, and made themselves into legends in the process.

     John Chambers remembers, "It was over 20 years ago when I started attending lunchtime sessions at the Cavern Club and first discovered the Beatles, who were then a very minor group. Their music has obsessed me ever since. With a friend, I've collected every single Beatles record that's ever been produced, including some pirate productions.

     About four years ago, we decided that it was about time Liverpool made some sort of official recognition of the Beatles. So with two friends, I formed the Beatles Monument Campaign to get something done. Earlier this year, the city council, at last, started to take the project seriously. Money is starting to come in, and a bank is handling the funds.

     "Already, we're getting a tremendous response and have commissioned a Beatle statue by John Doubleday, the sculptor who did the Charlie Chaplin statue recently in London. A major building company has already agreed to name streets in a new housing development in Liverpool after the Beatles, including Stu Sutcliffe, Pete Best, and their first real manager, the late Brian Epstein."

    Today, the Beatles represent not just one generation, but all those who followed since. And there can't be anybody anywhere in the world who doesn't know who they are. The campaign organizers have written for support to the Queen. "Although she replied that she couldn't do anything officially to help us, Buckingham Palace did send us good wishes for our campaign. So did the former Prime Minister James Callahan, as well as disc jockeys and showbiz celebrities. 

     "There's no chance that the Beatles will ever be forgotten, but those of us who grew up with them just want to make sure that they receive the recognition that we know they deserve. They were and are part of our lives."

Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

 

Pizza Party time

 

We know that Ringo has never eaten a slice of pizza, but he can't say that he has never been to a pizza party because here he is with the cast of Shining Time Station during a pizza party, and he seems to be having a good time, even without eating a slice himself. 

He is leaving home

 

Some But Not All Remember When There Were Four (1976)

 Some But Not All Remember When There Were Four

By Gordon Burn

Sunday Times of London (Reprinted in the Cleveland Press)

May 7, 1976

    10 years is a short time in adulthood. 1966 was only yesterday, wasn't it?  But to a 10-year-old, 1966 is prehistory, as Gordon Burn found out when he asked some London school children about the biggest popular phenomenon of the 60s, The Beatles. Parents might like to ask their own kids the same questions and get equally surprising results. 

Robert Pink, age 10:  When the Beatles were famous, it was before the war, at least. They had bodyguards around them all the time, and all the gutters were filled with dirt because people would never empty their dust bins. People chucked rubbish out the windows, and the ladies all wore old-fashioned dresses, and they trailed in it. 

    The Beatles came from Newcastle, and they made a lot of films. My dad used to watch them all the time. He wouldn't miss any of them ever. My dad wanted a set of drums like one of the Beatles. He bought some, but he had to give them back again. Mum said, "You won't be getting up all night playing the drums, will you?"  And he said, "Probably."

 Andrew Bailey, age 10:  There were five. I think there was Paul McCartney. He was the guitarist, wasn't he? I don't know who else. Oh, hang on, Ringo. Ringo Starr, all their old films are on the telly. I remember now. Three of them have died. I betcha, it was in a plane crash, something like that. That's what my brother told me. And my brother's much older than me. He's 12.

    1966, let's see. The war was 30 years ago. So if it was 10 years ago, it was 56, wasn't it? The dresses were a bit old-fashioned, and the men all wore what they called drainpipes, dead tight and short. That's what the Beatles were like. They weren't the first ones to start off long hair. Hair's always been long. I had long hair when I was born. 

The Beatles, I think, came from Yorkshire. And they used to play in New York and on airplanes, and all the people then were crazy. There were some other groups that came from Yorkshire as well. I think Bill Haley and all that lot. Hey, Are you a policeman?

 Douglas Smith, age 9:  They came from London, but I can't remember what the music was like. You got lots of girls screaming for them, didn't you, and they were fainting. Wherever they went, there was always crowds, always shouting. They had funny suits, and the boots they wore were funny too. They had big heels to make them look tall. For the girls, I suppose.

     My dad's got a couple of their records, but my mom plays them, not my dad, because he's at work nearly all the time, or he's going to football. When my mom goes to parties, she takes her records with her. I think the Beatles are still popular at things like that. 

    I suppose they got married and they're normal men now. They must be about 89; they must be walking around with walking sticks. No, if it was 10 years ago, maybe they're 50-something. I bet they buy lots of records of the Beatles to remember. I bet they miss it all. They think they're still pop stars, but they're not. I can't remember their names. 

Andrew Jones age 9:  Ten years ago, I was just a baby. Wait a minute. No, I weren't even born. Then the Beatles were a pop group like Sweet and Mud. In those days, they were literally the only pop group going. They used to play at beaches and at the top of airports, and everyone used to scream.

     We got a cupboard full of records at home, but only three of them are by The Beatles, and they're not even mine. Those ones, they're my dads. They're all LPs, but I don't know the names. He never tells me. He only listens to them when I'm out. The News Seekers have split up. I know that. I'm not sure about the Beatles 

    Allison Martin, age 9:   When you see them on television, they're usually wearing horrible black suits like doctors, but they were the first ones to have long hair. I suppose people like the music or them. Ringo Starr was the best looking. He used to go bonkers. He used to throw his sticks into the air, catch them again, and start drumming. Paul whatchamacallum, he's in Wings, and John Lemon, isn't it? He might have been great, but I don't think he was very handsome. That last one, what was he called? George Harris?  I didn't like him.

     Kim, my sister, the one who started that fire in the school toilet. She's a fan of theirs. Least, she used to be. She used to have a Beatles record, and she played it so loud you could hear it a mile away. I can remember it. I was in the house screaming my head off. It was so loud, and the neighbors used to complain. 

    But now the Beatles have split up. I think they broke up because one of them, John, I think it was found some girl. He wanted to bring her into the pop group, and they didn't like each other anymore.

 Susan Batterby, age 8:  The Beatles? They're in history, aren't they? Everybody had hair then, like Bobby Charlton's; The Beatles were the first ones to grow it long. I think they're in a group still, aren't they? I bet they listen altogether to their old records to see if they were gods or what. They listen, they think "that's me."  I think they must feel sad now they're not famous no more, and all the people aren't fighting to get to touch them and screaming, but with all that singing, they must be quite rich.

A Beatle Grows Wings (1976)

 A Beatle Grows Wings

By Bruno Bornino

The Cleveland Press

May 7, 1976

    The ex-Beatle Paul McCartney's current initial tour the US with his band Wings, is being billed as the "Rock event of the decade", and judging from the first show the group did in Fort Worth, Texas, Monday night, it could very well be.

     During his first performance in this country in 10 years, McCartney and Wings did a two-hour and 15-minute set that earned them numerous standing ovations and three lighted matches encores that lasted for minutes. And Fort Worth crowds reportedly are very reserved about most pop rock acts.

     Besides McCartney on lead vocals, bass, and keyboards, Wings featured Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch on guitars, bass, and backup harmonies. Joe English on drums and harmonies, and Paul's wife Linda on keyboards, percussion, and harmonies. They're also a quartet of wind and brass players doing backup instrumentation. 

    The program, which McCartney said later backstage would likely remain fixed throughout the sold-out 31-performance 20-city tour that runs through June 22, consisted of 29 tunes. There were 26 McCartney compositions, one by Laine, one by McCulloch, and a Paul Simon classic called "Richard Cory."

     So the 21,000 fans holding tickets to Wings Coliseum concert Monday night will probably hear nine songs from the band's Venus and Mars album, five from Band on the Run, four from the new At the Speed of Sound LP, one each from McCartney's first solo album, and Red Rose Speedway, two singles, and an unrecorded rocker called " Soily"

     But if Clevelanders are like Texans, the greatest cheers will be for the five Beatles songs that are included in the program. The songs, which McCartney insisted were random choices, were "Lady Madonna", "Long and Winding Road", "I've Just Seen a Face", "Blackbird" and "Yesterday."

     The New York Times reported the band's first performances as a "spiffy show, nicely paced with a clear, solid sound system and some pleasing special effects, including one spectacular bit with lasers at the end, in which a thin sheet of light was deployed over the audience, and marbled smoke patterns reflected off it." The headline said, "McCartney's tour starts triumphantly,"

     Afterward, an obviously excited McCartney said, "I was a little bit nervous, but I pretended I wasn't. I used to get much more nervous with The Beatles. I was younger, I guess. I love American audiences. They're just great. The response to "Live and Let Die" (McCartney's original score for the James Bond movie of the same title) was ridiculous."

     Although the Beatles' songs received the greatest applause, McCartney obviously was eager to de-emphasize those and to promote the newer Wings material. "We didn't want to be too precious about choosing them. He said, That's the trouble with the Beatles thing. People will think it's all we can perform. Some of the younger kids like the new songs better than the old ones." McCartney 34 probably was referring to the much younger kids in London who, according to the other story on this page, don't even remember the Beatles, but the rest of us could never forget them and hope someday they will get together again.

In Trinidad

 May 5, 1971 -  John and Yoko with Michael X and his family in Trinidad