Starr plays Radio City Music Hall
It’s Beatles season in New York City. Within a week of Paul McCartney playing a surprise show at Grand Central Station, Ringo Starr followed a more old-fashioned path Thursday night. The drummer and singer headlined a two-hour show at Radio City Music Hall, with thousands spending much of the performance standing and cheering along.
“We love you, Ringo!” one fan called out, and Starr shouted greetings in kind.
The ex-Beatle wore black, but stars hung above the stage, and peace signs beamed from behind. Starr’s message for years has been peace, love and a happy look back, whether through such Beatles and solo favorites as “Yellow Submarine” and “Photograph,” or through the songs of his current set of sidemen.
At 78, Starr moved about the stage with the lightness of a man decades younger.
After joking early on about his struggles to write, he performed his self-composed “Anthem” — for “peace and love” as the song goes. But the show builds up to his real signature song, and long-running tribute to his place in the world: Lennon-McCartney’s “With a Little Help From My Friends.” He didn’t need to introduce it, and hardly needed to sing it. He held out the microphone to the crowd, and everyone joined in.