Carrott’s stick to beat Ringo
QUESTION
After Ringo Starr was knighted, the fake story that John Lennon said ‘Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles’ was resurrected. Who first made that joke?
THIS was originally a joke by the Brummie comedian Jasper Carrott. Mark Lewisohn’s biography The Beatles — All These Years — Extended Special Edition: Volume One, states: ‘The most widely quoted Lennon line about Ringo’s drumming (‘He wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles’) was never said by him.
‘It was an Eighties gag by comedian Jasper Carrott, as confirmed in an email to the author, April 13, 2012.’
Lewisohn is a Beatles fanatic with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the group.
Rather than disparaging his drumming skills, the other three Beatles worshipped Ringo. When Paul and John first spotted him in Hamburg, bearded and wearing a suit, ‘drinking bourbon and seven’, they were in awe. According to McCartney: ‘This was, like, a grown-up musician.’
One night, Ringo sat in for their then drummer Pete Best. ‘I remember the moment,’ said Paul.
‘Standing there and looking at John and then looking at George, and the look on our faces was like . . . what is this? And that was the moment, that was the beginning, really, of The Beatles.’
According to Lennon: ‘I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians. Not technically great — none of us are technical musicians. None of us could read music. None of us can write it.
‘But as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make the noise, they are as good as anybody.’
And George Harrison said: ‘Ringo’s got the best backbeat I’ve ever heard, and he can play great 24 hours a day.’ He also said: ‘Playing without Ringo is like driving a car on three wheels.’
Kim Lewis, Lincoln.
QUESTION
Did RAF Spitfire squadrons operate in Russia during World War II?
NUMBER 151 Wing, RAF, served in Russia in 1941, but it was equipped with Hawker Hurricanes, not Supermarine Spitfires. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, its armies were quickly overwhelmed and the Russians were desperate for modern aircraft.
Within days of the invasion, Britain and Russia entered into a military alliance, and the Hurricane was the first allied aircraft delivered to the USSR.
This decision required shipping supplies to the northern ports of Murmansk and Archangel. The convoys sailed within range of enemy air attack from the Luftwaffe, based in Norway and Finland, so a number of Hurricane 11Bs were delivered to provide protection with RAF squadrons 81 and 134.
Wing Commander H. N. G. Ramsbottom-Isherwood RNZAF, commanded this RAF wing, designated 151, with the initial 24-cannon equipped Hurricanes shipped in the carrier HMS Argus, arriving at Murmansk airfield on September 7, 1941.
Merchant ships carried 15 crated Hurricanes and ground equipment to Archangel, where the fighters were assembled and flown by British, Australian and New Zealand ground and aircrew, the majority being veterans from the Battles of France and Britain.
The final RAF operational flight was carried out on October 8, 1941, when the aircraft and equipment were handed over to the Soviet air force, and all RAF personnel departed by December 7.
These Hurricanes were the first of thousands of Allied aircraft supplied to the Soviet Union.
More than 2,900 Hurricanes of British and Canadian production were sent between 1941 and 1944. These comprised 210 MkIIAs (with some MkI conversions), 1,557 MkIIBs, 1,009 MkIICs, 60 tank-busting MkIIDs and 100 MkIVs. The Russians modified some to carry American 0.5 (12.7mm) machine-guns, and some were converted into twoseaters for training. A total of 150 Spitfires were shipped to Russia, 90 of which were new and 60 reconditioned. More detail can be found in Hurricane: The Last Witnesses by Brian Milton. History is beginning to dispel the myth — inspired by Churchillian propaganda — that the Spitfire was the RAF’s only World War II aircraft. Alan Patrick, Stamford, Lincs.
QUESTION
Have there been many instances of the viewing public accidentally damaging valuable art?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, artworks by Tracey Emin, the enfant terrible of British art, have suffered a number of such accidents.
In 2009 in Edinburgh’s Gallery Of Modern Art, her Self-Portrait: Bath — a neon light tangled in barbed wire — sustained £1,200 worth of damage when the barbs snagged a visitor’s clothing.
Feeling Pregnant III was damaged at the same gallery when a visitor backed into the stand.
In May 2004, a warehouse fire destroyed many of her works, including her infamous embroidered tent, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-95.
In 2000, porters at Sotheby’s London disposed of a wooden case in a crushing machine. They were apparently unaware it contained a study of a plant by Lucian Freud worth £100,000.
Ben Holland, Bedford.
SOMETIMES artists destroy their own work. A 1908 Paris exhibition was set to feature the newest paintings by Claude Monet. But when the French Impressionist gave them a final look, he determined they weren’t good enough.
Using a knife and a paintbrush, he attacked the paintings — worth £50,000 in 1908 (and millions today) — defacing 15 of them beyond repair.
Helen Ladywood, Bakewell, Derbys.