Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band ~ 2018 September 15 ~ Toyota Oakdale Theatre ~ Wallingford, CT
Band Personnel: Ringo Starr, vocals, drums, keyboard; Colin Hay, vocals, rhythm guitar [Men At Work]; Steve Lukather, vocals, lead guitar [Toto]; Gregg Rolie, vocals, keyboards [Santana]; Graham Gouldman, vocals, bass [10cc]; Warren Ham, percussion, sax, flute, backing vocals; Gregg Bissonnette, drums, backing vocals
Set List
Matchbox - It Don't Come Easy - What Goes On - Dreadlock Holiday [Graham Gouldman, 10CC] - Evil Ways [Gregg Rolie, Santana] - Rosanna [Steve Lukather, Toto] - Down Under [Colin Hay, Men At Work] - Boys - Don't Pass Me By - Yellow Submarine - I'm Not in Love [Graham Gouldman, 10CC] - Black Magic Woman [Gregg Rolie, Santana] - You're Sixteen - Anthem - Overkill [Colin Hay, Men At Work] - Africa [Steve Lukather, Toto] - Oye Como Va [Gregg Rolie, Santana] - I Wanna Be Your Man - The Things We Do for Love [Graham Gouldman, 10CC] - Who Can It Be Now? [Colin Hay, Men At Work] - Hold the Line [Steve Lukather, Toto] - Photograph - Act Naturally - With a Little Help From My Friends - Give Peace a Chance
Setlist also posted to setlist.fm. I haven't bothered to note when one of the Beatles songs performed here was a cover; these songs are so well known and so identified with The Beatles and Ringo that this notation seems unnecessary. For the non-Ringo songs, I have put in brackets which musician sang lead and which band made the song famous. Some of those songs are covers too, such as "Black Magic Woman," originally by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
Review
I've been on something of a Beatles kick for the last few years since I saw a great Beatles tribute show on Cape Cod called "A Day In the Life." Of course I've been a huge fan of their music (both as a band and solo) for virtually my entire life. So, it occurred to me I'd like to go see a Beatle.
I've seen a Beatle once before. I saw George Harrison at the Boston Garden in 1974, on what turned out to be his only solo tour in the U.S. (Thanks to my long time friend Leigh for organizing that outing.)
I'm very pleased to report that the Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band show is really, really great, and everyone should go see it at least once. The format is that Ringo recruits well-known musicians of the rock 'n' roll era to back him up on his songs, and then he drums on their songs. (There is also a second drummer.) Half of the show consisted of Ringo singing his own material, and the rest of the time the other four stars each performed three of the songs made famous by their original bands. The quality of the music was excellent; the band really was good. I liked the Santana songs the best, but they were all good. Ringo's songs were primarily drawn from his Beatles material, with a handful of his solo hits included as well.
The highlight of the show for me was "Boys," on which Ringo played drums as well as singing. He sat at his drums and announced that he had played this song with his old band many, many times; and then he said: "that band too, but I was talking about Rory Storm and the Hurricanes." I think I came very, very close to screaming as if it were 1964 and I was a preteen. With just two exceptions, while singing his songs he took the microphone at the front of the stage, allowing co-drummer Gregg Bissonnette to handle the drumming. He also played an intro to "Don't Pass Me By" on the keyboards. Ringo's well known droll sense of humor was on display, as he spontaneously bantered with the audience and cracked a few jokes about his long career. For example, he commented that "What Goes On" was a co-write with his famous bandmates, and that although it was credited to "Lennon-McCartney-Starkey," that was very wrong and it should have said "Starkey-McCartney-Lennon."
At age 78, Sir Richard Starkey is very fit, lively, and energetic on stage. He bopped around happily while singing at the front of the stage, popped right up a couple of times after going down to the floor in a rock star pose with one of the (much younger) guitarists, even did a few jumping jacks. He has an obvious love for the music, for performing, and for sharing with an audience who loves him.
The arena was entirely sold out with fans of all ages. There were children all the way to baby boomers. The sound was excellent, and loud enough without being too loud. The light show projected images of stars and peace symbols and other psychedelia on the backdrop of the stage. At the end of the 24-song set the band played a few bars of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" as the outro.
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