Ringo Starr

After being a fan for some forty plus years, I have finally seen a Beatle live and in person. Annette, The Princess and I attended the Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band concert at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery on Saturday.


This was our first time at the venue and it was quite nice. The concert was held outdoors and the weather was perfect. We arrived about three hours before show time and already the place was filling up fast. There is some reserved seating, which we had, but most of it is an open grass area where people can bring their own chairs, blankets, coolers and have a picnic while watching the show. Various food vendors are also present on the grounds. The only potent potables allowed at the show are those bought from the winery itself. They must have sold thousands of bottles that day.

Ringo was just like he appears on television; very upbeat with an easy going style. He was quite energetic for a man who just turned 68.

The members of the All Starr Band are all successful performers in their own right. Each had the opportunity to perform their songs as well as backing up Ringo.

Billy Squire. I had seen Billy once before as the opening act for the 1982 Queen tour. He was the lead guitarist for the show and was outstanding. I really enjoyed watching and listening to him play. He performed his biggest hit, The Stroke, which the entire crowd was familiar with and really enjoyed.

Edgar Winter played saxophone, keyboards, and percussion. He performed his two biggest hits of Free Ride and Frankenstein. Everyone in the audience knew these two songs of course, and really got into them. Edgar has a good-ole-boy Texas accent which just screams rock and roll. This seemed to really amuse Ringo as evidenced by the good natured kidding.

Colin Hay was the guitarist and lead singer for Men at Work and played mostly rhythm guitar for this show. He performed the two big hits of Down Under (vegemite sandwich, et al) and Who Can It Be Now. These numbers were well received by the audience.

Hamish Stuart, from Average White Band, played bass for the night except took over guitar when performing AWB material. Squier covered bass during these numbers. I was never an AWB fan and apparently neither was most of the audience, so not much excitement during these numbers; average is right.

Gary Wright played keyboards and performed Dream Weaver. That song was lame back then and still is today. Total sleeper. Zzzzzz.

Gregg Bissonette is primarily a session drummer, who according to the souvenir program, seems to have played with everyone everywhere.

As with most venues, cameras are banned and so not much to share in the way of pictures. The following is a cell phone shot of our view from row twelve. A search on You Tube will provide a lot of video clips of the show from various locations around the country for those interested.


The old Beatle songs were our favorites of course. Ringo performed I Wanna Be Your Man, Boys, Act Naturally, What Goes On and the two crowd favorites, A Little Help from My Friends and Yellow Submarine. The entire crowd really joined in on the latter two. It was really cool to actually sing Yellow Submarine along with Ringo himself. He also performed Photograph and It Don’t Come Easy from his solo days as well as Liverpool 8, his latest release. I was wearing a Liverpool FC shirt and with Annette’s encouragement and the daughter’s embarrassment, I jumped up and waved frantically. No acknowledgement was received, but at least I gave it a shot. (Yeah, for one brief moment I was that guy.)

In addition to the usual souvenir program I picked up the following item.

Ringo with Ooo Man Two.


Annette’s been saying we need some art in our home. A signed Ringo print is a very cool start.