Music interview: Ringo Starr

 

‘Every time I see your face, it reminds me of the places we used to go. But all I’ve got is a photograph, and I realise you’re not coming back any more.”

That’s the opening line from Photograph, one of Ringo Starr’s biggest solo hits.
It was originally released in 1973, but today sounds as though he wrote it specially to fit in with his latest project.
Ringo’s got an ebook out. Also called Photograph, it’s full of previously unseen pictures from the former Beatle’s life, from birth through to 1974, with special emphasis on those eight years when he, along with John, Paul and George, ruled the world.
The contents of Photograph are beautiful. So often a news story will break in the music press that some unseen photographs of The Beatles have been uncovered. Nine times out of 10, they’re not wholly unseen and will have been taken at the same time as a more famous photoshoot.
Ringo’s book, however, is different – and so much more enlightening. He certainly had the access. The holiday snaps of him, John, George and Paul with assorted wives and girlfriends will be particularly interesting to any Beatleheads out there.
There’s one photo of John Lennon grimacing while having urchin spines removed from his foot, while another shows Paul McCartney with then girlfriend Jane Asher. Paul is casually standing by a swimming pool, knotted hanky on his head to shelter from the sun.
“He looks dead Liverpool in that photo,” says Ringo. “We were generally on our own on holiday, so that’s why we all look so natural in the pics. We needed the breaks. God knows we worked a lot.”
It wasn’t just on holiday that they tried to shut off the outside world. When touring, they famously doubled up in rooms: Paul and Ringo, say, sharing one room, George and John in the other.
“We could’ve had the whole floor of a hotel, but we’d share. And after shows you’d always find the four of us hanging out in the bathroom. People always wanted something from us, interviews or photos or this or that, but when we were locked in the bathroom, it was just us and no one could get at us.”
At this point, Ringo’s voice wobbles slightly. To the outsider, these are photographs of four of the most famous people we’ve ever seen. To Ringo, they’re pictures of his old life with his best mates.
“Man, we were tight,” he says. “They were a huge part of my life, and we were great, great friends. Paul still is.”
Photograph by Ringo Starr is published by Genesis Publications, £8.99. Available from iTunes and www.ringophotograph.com now.

Source: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk