Wishing upon a Starr of nostalgia; Ex-Beatle and band of aging rockers relive
glory days with graying fans
Montreal Gazette Saturday, July 28, 2001
Page: D4 Section: Art & Entertainment
Byline: Mike Regenstreif
Source: FREELANCE
You want to know what nostalgia is? It's thousands of 40- and 50-somethings
on their feet screaming, "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine"
at the top of their lungs as a 61-year-old former Beatle jumps up and down
flashing peace signs.
Ringo Starr has been spending his summer vacations lately putting together
bands of aging rock stars ready to hit the road and relive the glory days
when any of them could, and did, fill arenas and stadiums.
This year's edition of Ringo's All-Starrs includes Roger Hodgson and Greg
Lake, veterans respectively of Supertramp and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, two
bands whose progressive rock was huge in Montreal long before the rest of
the world took any notice. So you had to know this was a show Montrealers
of a certain age were going to love.
And they did. Whether it was Ringo singing a Beatles tune like "Boys" or
Lake reaching back to before his days with ELP for King Crimson's "Court
of the Crimson Queen [sic]", almost every song brought the crowd to their
feet for a standing ovation.
While the show may have been an exercise in nostalgia, with almost no new
material through the whole evening, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
Along with Starr, Hodgson and Lake, the band also included Mott the Hoople's
Ian Hunter, Prince's drummer Sheila E and techno-pop keyboard ace Howard
Jones. And though these musicians come from diverse musical backgrounds,
they jelled as a band playing each other's material and they all seemed to
enjoy playing behind their band mates.
In sharing the stage with band members who have all had their share of hits,
Starr paced the show so he'd be in the spotlight about half the time, with
each of his co-stars getting a couple or three turns out front throughout
the show. When one of the others was up, Ringo would be on the drums, proving
he still keeps a formidable beat.
In addition to his Beatles material, Ringo also sang a bunch of his solo
hits, bringing the crowd to their feet on numbers like "You're Sixteen" and
"Photograph."
But you had to just take those songs for what they are and the times they
represented. After all it's a little disconcerting thinking about a guy past
60 singing a love song to a teenager or thinking ahead to when we grow old
and grey. Looking up on stage and around the arena, most of us there were
old and grey.
While the ovations earned by Hodgson and Lake were to be expected in Montreal,
it was Sheila E at the front of the stage with her timbales on her song "A
Love Bizarre" who really earned her standing O. Sheila turned in an explosive
tour-de-force of percussion that wouldn't let go.
Ringo knows exactly what to do with a summer show. Just have fun.