Note:
Now that my journey against TB is over (hopefully!), I decided to post biographies of celebrated personalities who had the disease. I will try my best to post stories of TB survivors.
If you, my dear reader, stumbled upon this blabberings of mine, also is fighting, or have fought the disease, or if someone near you is fighting it, I hope that this gives you hope to overcome this disease in my own little way.
x
Arlene.
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Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr MBE (born Richard Starkey; 7 July 1940) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles.
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| Richie and his mum, Elsie |
Richard Starkey was born on the 7th July 1940, the only child of Richard and Elsie, who where living at no 9 Madryn Street, Dingle, Liverpool. In 1944, in an effort to reduce their housing costs, his family moved to another neighbourhood in the Dingle, 10 Admiral Grove; soon afterwards, his parents separated, and they divorced within the year. Elsie found it difficult to survive on her ex-husband's support payments of thirty shillings a week, so she took on several menial jobs cleaning houses before securing a position as a local barmaid, an occupation that she enjoyed for twelve years.
At age six Starkey developed appendicitis. Following a routine appendectomy he contracted peritonitis, causing him to fall into a coma that lasted for three days. His recovery spanned twelve months, which he spent away from his family at Liverpool's Myrtle Street Children's hospital. Upon his discharge in May 1948, his mother allowed him to stay home, causing him to miss school. At age eight, he remained illiterate, with a poor grasp of mathematics. His lack of education contributed to a feeling of alienation at school, which resulted in him regularly playing truant at Sefton Park.
After several years of twice weekly tutoring from his surrogate sister and neighbour, Marie Maguire Crawford, Starkey had nearly caught up to his peers academically, but in 1953, he contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where he remained for two years. During his stay the medical staff made an effort to stimulate motor activity and relieve boredom by encouraging their patients to join the hospital band, leading to his first exposure to a percussion instrument; a makeshift mallet made from a cotton bobbin that he used to strike the cabinets next to his bed. Soon afterwards, he grew increasingly interested in drumming, receiving a copy of the Alyn Ainsworth song "Bedtime for Drums" as a convalescence gift from Crawford. Starkey commented: "I was in the hospital band ... That's where I really started playing. I never wanted anything else from there on ... My grandparents gave me a mandolin and a banjo, but I didn't want them. My grandfather gave me a harmonica ... we had a piano – nothing. Only the drums."
As a result of the prolonged hospitalisations, he fell behind his peers scholastically and was ineligible for the 11-plus qualifying examination required for attendance at a grammar school.
Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described Starkey's upbringing as "a Dickensian chronicle of misfortune". Houses in the area were "poorly ventilated, postage-stamp-sized ... patched together by crumbling plaster walls, with a rear door that opened onto an outhouse." Crawford commented: "Like all of the families who lived in the Dingle, he was part of an ongoing struggle to survive. The children who lived there spent much of their time at Princes Park, escaping the soot-filled air of their coal-fuelled neighbourhood. Adding to their difficult circumstances, violent crime was an almost constant concern for people living in one of the oldest and poorest inner-city districts in Liverpool. Starkey later commented: "You kept your head down, your eyes open, and you didn't get in anybody's way."
When it was time for him to leave school he left with no qualifications, and after a few dead end jobs he got himself a steady job in the Speke district of Liverpool at H.Hunts, it was there that he joined his first band, known as the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, playing drums during lunch breaks.
Now that Ritchie had his own drum kit, and had a gig at the Cavern Club with the Skiffle group, he was becoming more well known and in 1959 left Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group to join The Dark Town Skiffle group, after which he joined the Raving Texans with Alan Caldwell, it was around this time that Ritchie became known as Ringo Starr, and Alan Caldwell called himself Rory Storm, at the end of 1959 Skiffle was on the way out, so Ringo and Rory re-named the Raving Texans to the new name of Rory Storm and The Hurricanes.
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| Ritchie on drums with The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. |
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| Ringo on drums with the Hurricanes. |
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| The Beatles, with Pete Best as the drummer. |
At the beginning of the 60's Rory Storm and the Hurricanes had established themselves as the top group in Liverpool, but a new band was coming through to challenge the top stop, that was The Beatles, with John, Paul, George and Pete Best, the rivalry between the group was always friendly as they would meet each other at gigs around the north west of England and while touring in Hamburg.
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| Ringo Starr as the drummer for The Beatles. |
It was during 1962, when The Beatles got a record deal, that Pete Best left group, and George Harrison wanted Ringo to join The Beatles, it was John Lennon who contacted Ringo to ask him to join The Beatles.
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| Clockwise, from upper left: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. |
Pete Best's fans were not happy with his firing. They held vigils outside his house and at the club shouting "Pete forever! Ringo never!" Harrison received a black eye from one of the upset fans and Epstein, whose car tyres they had flattened in anger, temporarily hired a bodyguard to ensure his safety. Eventually, however, by 1962, Ringo Starr has been accepted by the fans, and soon, he began receiving fan mail almost as many as the others, helping him secure his position in the band.
By the end of the year, the phenomenon known as Beatlemania had spread throughout the country, and by February 1964 the Beatles had become an international success, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show to a record 73 million viewers. Starr commented: "In the States I know I went over well. It knocked me out to see and hear the kids waving for me. I'd made it as a personality ... Our appeal ... is that we're ordinary lads."
From 1960, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. They acquired the nickname the "Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market. From 1965 on, the Beatles produced what many critics consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles ("The White Album") (1968), and Abbey Road (1969).
The break-up of The Beatles was a cumulative process throughout 1969–70, marked by rumours of a split and ambiguous comments by the Beatles themselves regarding the future of the group. Although John Lennon privately informed the other Beatles that he was leaving the group in September 1969, there was no public acknowledgement of the break-up until Paul McCartney announced on 10 April 1970 he was quitting the Beatles.
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| Starr, rear centre drumming with Bob Dylan and the Band, November 1976 |
Ringo launched a solo career in the 1970s, launched albums like "Sentimental Journey", "Beaucoups of Blues", and "Ringo" which writing and musical contributions from Lennon, McCarney, and Harrison. He also played drums on John Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Yoko Ono's Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band and on George Harrison's albums "All Things Must Pass" and "Living in the Material World ".
After John Lennon's murder in 1980, Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had originally written for Starr, "All Those Years Ago", as a tribute to their former bandmate. The track, which included vocal contributions from both Paul and Linda McCartney and Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in the US charts, and number 13 in the UK.
From 1984 to 1986, Starr narrated the children's series Thomas & Friends, a Britt Allcroft production based on the books by the Reverend W. Awdry. Starr also portrayed the character Mr. Conductor in the programme's American spin-off Shining Time Station, which debuted in 1989 on PBS. He left after the first season.
In 1989, Ringo formed Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. The band consisted of Starr and a varying assortment of musicians who had been successful in their own right with popular songs at different times. The concerts interchanged Starr's singing, including selections of his Beatles and solo songs, with performances of each of the other artists' well-known material, the latter incorporating either Starr or another musician as drummer. Some of the musicians who had became a member of the band were Joe Walsh (Eagles and James Gang), Nils Lofgren (E Street Band) ,Rick Danko (The Band), Timothy B. Schmit (Poco and Eagles), Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople), and Bruce Springsteen.
Up to this date, Ringo Starr has remained active in the music industry, gathering a lot of awards over his achievements. He also appeared in shows like The Simpsons.
Ringo Starr married Maureen Cox in 1965, and they had three children together: Zak (born 13 September 1965), Jason (born 19 August 1967) and Lee (born 11 November 1970). Following Starr's repeated infidelities, the couple divorced in 1975. Maureen died from leukaemia in 1994, with Ringo and her then-husband Isaac Tigrett by her bedside.
In 1980, while on the set of the film Caveman, Starr met actress Barbara Bach; they were married on 27 April 1981. In 1985, he was the first of the Beatles to become a grandfather upon the birth of Zak's daughter, Tatia Jayne Starkey. Zak Starkey is also a drummer, and during his father's regular absences, he spent time with the Who's Keith Moon. Zak has performed with his father during some All-Starr Band tours.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, Starr was listed at number 56 with an estimated personal wealth of £150m.
Recently, Ringo and Paul McCartney - the 2 remaining Beatles - had an opportunity to sing together again at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Enjoy this video. :)
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