BPD longtime member JoopJoop had this to say about a recent show he saw:
Here's a sobering thought: Ringo Starr, will turn 70 on July 7; he looks a good decade and a half younger, all fit and trim and energetic as ever.
The lineup for this year's All Starr Band is keyboardist-saxophonist-drummer Edgar Winter, singer-keyboardist Gary Wright, singer-guitarist Rick Derringer, Mister Mr. singer-bassist Richard Page, Romantics singer-guitarist Wally Palmar and drummer Gregg Bissonette.
And like every other time the All Starr Band has gone on the road, they all got their turns in the spotlight when Starr wasn't grabbing it for himself.
Starr opened the nearly two-hour show with It Don't Come Easy and Honey Don't before getting up behind the drum kit about half way through his more recent song, Choose Love, alongside Bissonette on a lower riser.
Bobbing his head and smiling away, it was clear he was having fun and still loves his job.
Derringer, who is definitely bringing a harder guitar-rock edge to this year's lineup, performed The McCoys' Hang On Sloopy before introducing his former White Trash (the band that is) group member Winter.
The long, lean and lanky Winter, still sporting his trademark luxurious white mullet, packed a major wallop as a live performer during Free Ride and Frankenstein, the latter which saw him perform on keyboards, sax and drums, sometimes both at the same time.
Vocally, both Wright and Page were the strongest performers of the night on their own respective hits, Dream Weaver and My Love Is Alive, and Kyrie and Broken Wings.
But Palmar was also a dynamo during such Romantics classics as Talking In Your Sleep and What I Like About You and nobody's musicianship was stronger than Derringer's virtuoso guitar display on his own Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo.
Starr is touring in support of his latest album, Y Not, which notably features his Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney on two songs, but only performed two tracks from that record, The Other Side Of Liverpool and Peace Dream.
Instead, Starr satisfied Beatles fans in the crowd by delivering such Fab Four hits as Yellow Submarine, and With A Little Help From My Friends and a snippet of John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance just before he walked off stage, flashing his ever present peace sign right to the end.
SET LIST:
It Don't Come Easy
Honey Don't
Choose Love
Hang On Sloopy
Free Ride
Talking In Your Sleep
Be Your Man
Dream Weaver
Kyrie
The Other Side Of Liverpool
Yellow Submarine
Frankenstein
Peace Dream
Back Off Boogaloo
What I Like About You
Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo
Boys
My Love Is Alive
Broken Wings
Photograph
Act Naturally
With A Little Help From My Friends/Give Peace a Chance
Backstage, Starr was also his usual dry, witty self, telling me all about his "first night jitters". When Wright explained to me that Beatles guitarist George Harrison took him to India and gave him many books, Starr quipped: "George Harrison never gave me no damn books." Talking about making new albums, he said "I only make records now for the kids - my kids. I give them a copy."
Oh, Ringo!
