Ringo/Liverpool

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Ringo back to where he once belonged

With a little help from his friends, ex-Beatle Ringo Starr returned home Friday to kick-start Liverpool's year in the spotlight as a European Capital of Culture.

Starr will join Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart in headlining a huge outdoor concert, featuring around 600 local musicians, aerial performers and children.

The Fab Four's drummer will star again Saturday in "Liverpool, The Musical," a showcase of the city's rich musical heritage that also features the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Farm and up-and-coming rockers The Wombats.

The yearlong festivities are seen as an important step in attempts by the northwest England port to shake off its image of economic deprivation, social unrest and gang violence.

The city has spent years and pumped millions into regeneration — work that organizers predict will spark a tourism boom.

To give tourists a better impression, rundown buildings — including rows of dilapidated houses near downtown Liverpool — have been hidden behind billboards covered with paintings and poetry.

The efforts to mask buildings in disrepair have not been without controversy.

Graffiti artist Banksy's 30-foot mural on the side of a pub was among the structures covered up — prompting complaints that the city was targeting neighborhoods rather than individual blighted buildings.

More than 350 other events are planned throughout the year.

Each year two cities in European Union nations hold the title of culture capital, a designation that provides a boost for jobs and tourism. Britain last had its turn in 1990, when Glasgow was honored.

Stavanger, Norway, is the other culture capital for 2008.

Seems like a good cause,,go ringo go.

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An interview added;
(CBS) When Beatlemania was in full bloom, so was the swooning of young ladies over the Fab Four.

But who got the most girls? Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison or Ringo Starr?

"Well," revealed Ringo in an exclusive Early Show interview from the Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, England Friday (Jan 11). "Paul, actually. Paul the most. Because he was just so darn cute!"

"But, in America,"remarked Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez, "you were the cute, cuddly, teddy bear."

"I was the one in America," Ringo agreed. "Yes, I was Mr. America. I loved America, because they just went for me, and it was great!"

Starr and Rodriguez were in Liverpool's newly restored, historic St. George's Hall on the first day of the city's year as Europe's official cultural capital -- as Starr's latest CD, "Liverpool 8," was hitting store shelves.

The album's name refers to the post office designation for the part of Liverpool where Ringo grew up, and the disc is a quasi-autobiography.

Rodriguez told Ringo, "(Fellow co-anchor) Julie Chen and I were watching in the studio, and we got misty-eyed. It's this beautiful, melancholic tour of your life and your career."

"It started with Dave, Dave Stewart," Ringo explained, "and I wrote the song. He had this idea of doing an autobiography. So I just went through what I did. I was a sailor first."

He says the CD depicts "a man's life. I worked on the railways before that, but we couldn't rhyme it with anything. You know. So it's not in!"

That was greeted by laughter from the audience.

"That was my first job," Starr continued. "And then on the boats. And then I was in a factory, like it says. ... And you know the rest."

Being a Beatle was "a lot of fun," Ringo understated. "It was great. And we made great music. You know, I was an only child, and suddenly I had three brothers. So for me it was incredible."

But, "I don't think about it every day. It's not something you do. You don't think about it every day. You don't wake up saying, 'Oh, what about those days?' You have to sort of get into this day, you know what I mean? I'm trying to get into this day now.

"But the joy is, and the blessing, at 13, I wanted to be a drummer in a band, which I achieved, and I wanted to play with good players, which I achieved, and I'm still doing it. So, the dreams are still coming true."

Ringo has been married to actress Barbara Bach for 27 years.

The audience clapped and howled when he was asked it that's his biggest accomplishment, to which Ringo kidded, "You may be clapping, but you don't have to live with her!

"But it's a blessing, you know. I always say, you know, i love the woman, and I'm blessed that she loves me," prompting a long "ahh" from the crowd, made up mostly of college students.

Ringo says John "was an incredible man, and nobody played guitar like he did. Or wrote those songs. He was great.":

George, he says, "was my friend. Yeah."

Asked by Rodriguez if the odds had improved from the 50 / 50 he;'d given another interviewer recently that he and McCartney would perform together again, Ringo said with a smirk that the odds remained the same, then added, "People still say that. How crazy are they? You're going down the street, and they say, 'Hey, when you getting back together?' Well, it's a bit tough right now!" John and George are, of course, dead.

Ringo says he sees John's widow, Yoko Ono on occasion, most recently in Iceland, where they attended the John Lennon Lights of Peace.