Happy Birthday, Ringo!

Magick Sandwich takes a break from its regularly scheduled programming to bring you joy.

Ringo Starr celebrated his 70th (!) birthday at Radio City Music Hall last night. His All Starr Band consisted of Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, Richard Page, Gary Wright, Wally Palmar and Gregg Bissonette.The happily schizophrenic setlist included Frankenstein, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo, What I Like About You, Free Ride and Yellow Submarine.

At the end of the show, musicians and friends crowded the stage, some of them singing along to With a Little Help From My Friends and Give Peace a Chance. Yoko Ono, Joe Walsh and Steve Van Zandt were standouts for me. Some were a little harder for me to identify. Rolling Stone lists Brian Johnson, Jeff Lynne, Nils Lofgren, Angus Young, Max Weinberg and Mick Jones. I did not see Angus. According to Hollywood News, the group onstage and backstage included Keith Richards, Jim Keltner, Steve Bing, Paul’s girlfriend Nancy Shevell, Ed Begley, Jr. and Hayley Joel Osment (huh?).

The Examiner adds these to that list: Barbara Bach, Colin Hay, Olivia Harrison, Sid Bernstein, Dave Stewart, Mark Rivera, Greg Lake, Peter Asher, Gary Brooker and Zak, Lee and Jason Starkey. (Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Sean and Julian Lennon are rumored to have been there, but this has not been confirmed.)



Yoko Ono came onstage looking quite jaunty in a white hat. She had her own microphone but someone "neglected" to turn it on. Ringo shared his with her for a few seconds, then mercifully took it back. Sorry, Yoko, but you seemed to be reinterpreting Give Peace a Chance as a spoken word piece. In any case, you're as close as we'll ever get to John Lennon, so all is forgiven.

At the end of the song, Ringo's grandkids brought out a cake and the audience spontaneously sang Happy Birthday. Quite badly, I might add, but our voices were tired from singing along all evening. In the darkness after Ringo left the stage, a small amp was wheeled out. Then my husband spotted a Hofner bass. My heart started to pound. Was it possible? Had the rumors been true? I thought the scalpers outside had been saying it just to sell tickets.

Then the lights came up and Paul McCartney was there, dressed in the old Beatles uniform of black suit and skinny tie. We all went nuts. Cheering is too mild a word for what we were doing. I have never screamed like that in my life. I screamed so hard I started to gray out. I flashed on the old black-and-white images of girls squealing, crying and passing out at the sight of the Fab Four.

Paul sang Birthday while Ringo played the drums. (I later learned this may have been the first time they played the song together in public.) In the midst of the ecstatic din, it felt as if the whole audience was shrieking and jumping up and down with me. We were witnessing history. We were a part of it.



After they left the stage and the lights came up, we were all looking around at each other in shock. Had we really just seen that, been part of the reunion of the two living Beatles? We were the luckiest people on earth last night. Even though my husband now feels deaf in his right ear...and I was standing on his right. Coincidence? Perhaps not.

I called my mother on the taxi ride home. I was giddy. Yes, giddy as hell. My attempts to avoid squealing when I told her about it failed but the cab driver remained calm and we arrived home safely. I wonder if he's deaf in one ear today.

Joy, I tell you. Pure, unadulterated, unexpurgated joy. And I don't care if that's redundant. What would this kind of redundancy bring? More joy. And you know that can't be bad.