Ringo Starr Delivers

First off, Ringo looked great -- trim, with black hip hugger jeans, beatnik beard, and hipster T-shirt, and he seemed like he was having a blast with his All Star Band at St. Augustine Ampitheatre. He looked like he was in his 40s- not 70!

We sang along to Beatles' classics -- All You Need is Love, Act Naturally, Photograph, Imagine, Boy, Yellow Submarine, Little Help From My Friends, I Wanna Be Your Man. Over and over, these familiar tunes brought the mostly white, middle aged crowd (and their kids) to their feet over and over.

He was funny, introducing a song from his January 2010 CD "Y Not," with the quip: "Thanks to the eight of you who bought it."

The best thing of all was the real affection pouring out of the Beatles-fan audience. The crowd was loving the man from Liverpool as he jumped from drums to lead vocals and back again.

My daughter and I couldn't help laughing, however, at some of the bad '80's top forty songs by members of Ringo's All-Star Band; Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Rick Derringer, Richard Page (Mr. Mister), Wally Palmar (Romantics), and Gregg Bissonette on a second set of drums.


Richard Page was especially excrutiating with "Kyrie" and "Broken Wings." We could not understand why we were sitting at a Ringo Starr concert listening to songs that would make us change the station on the car radio in a heartbeat. At least Gary Wright's "Dreamweaver" was good for a laugh. My daughter tapped out "cheesy" on her phone and held it up for me.

The exceptions were Edgar Winter, who absolutely KILLED it on "Frankenstein," alternating from the synthesizer hung around his neck to the saxophone to the drums, Wally Palmar, who delivered with the steppy Romantics song "What I like About You," and Rick Derringer, who did "Hang on Sloopy" from his band the McCoys.

The whole concert alternated from Beatles Church to Vegas Act.  It kind  of IS a Vegas act -- The band's next stop? Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Rock on Ringo, we're glad we made the trip to see you live.