Ringo: A Fab Life Review: Charming portrait of The Beatles' anchor

In 1973, George Harrison soured the mood at a pre-Christmas get-together at Ringo Starr’s place by fessing up to an affair with the drummer’s wife Maureen. The man Eric Morecambe called Bongo responded with a shrug: “Better you than someone we don’t know.”

 This charming biography casts Starr as The Beatles’ anchor emotionally as well as rhythmically, showing how he overlooked bandmates’ foibles to maintain the Fabs’ team spirit beyond their 1970 split. Richy Starkey took up drumming while recovering from a teenage bout of tuberculosis, a no-nonsense persona underselling his unique playing style. MOJO writer Tom Doyle tracks how he became America’s favourite Beatle and then a solo hitmaker before bad film roles, a messy divorce and a worse alcohol problem took their toll. Sober since the 1980s, Starr’s drum-roll-with-the-punches resilience persists; as he told Doyle in a typically gnomic interview: “I make more right moves than left moves.” Resolutely fab.

Source: Jim Wirth/mojo4music.com