David Bedford
Ringo Starr: Biography
Ringo Starr was once described as the luckiest man on the planet. It was a spot-on assessment as he joined The Beatles just two weeks before they began recording their first single, “Love Me Do”, and their debut album Please Please Me at Abbey Road Studios.
However, it needed more than just luck to be a Beatle.
Homes
Richard Starkey was born on 7 July 1940 at 9, Madryn Street (Dingle). His mum and dad divorced when he was three, with Richard Sr. moving out of the house and back in with his parents at 59, Madryn Street. His paternal grandparents, John and Annie Starkey often baby-sat young Ritchie, but the relationship between his parents was strained, and living in the same street was awkward.
A bigger problem for his mother Elsie was meeting the high rent as a single parent. In order to make ends meet, she moved to 10, Admiral Grove, (Dingle) in 1945 when Ritchie was only five.
Elsie worked two jobs as a barmaid at the Wellington pub (Garston) and Yates’ in Liverpool, and not in The Empress (Dingle) as has been often reported. Elsie married again when Ritchie was thirteen, to Harry Graves. Ritchie’s last name should have been Parkin, not Starkey, but his great-grandfather changed his name to Starkey after his mother remarried.
When the tidal wave of Beatlemania hit, Ringo moved Elsie and his stepfather Harry to a new house in Gateacre at Heath Hey in Woolton. Elsie often returned to visit her friends in The Dingle as she missed them.
Education
Ritchie attended St. Silas School (Dingle) on High Park Street, just a few minutes from his house. When he was nearly seven, Ritchie was rushed to the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital on Myrtle Street, Liverpool, after his appendix burst. He eventually recovered from his life-threatening illness, earning the nickname of ‘Lazarus’ given by his paternal grandfather for his miraculous recovery.
Despite his illness, he moved on to Dingle Vale Secondary Modern School at the age of eleven. However, he suffered another setback two years later when he contracted tuberculosis, and this time he missed more than a year of schooling. He was moved to the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital in Heswall (Wirral), where his love for drumming was stimulated by childhood friend Marie Maguire.
Ritchie worked for a short time for the railways and was sent to Riversdale College (Aigburth) for training. After a period working on a ferry boat, he became an apprentice at Henry Hunt & Sons Ltd. near to his home in The Dingle.
Religion
Ringo’s parents were Protestants and members of the Orange Lodge, an organisation formed in 1795 by supporters of King William lll (known as William of Orange) of Britain who defeated the Catholic army of King James ll at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Every year on 12 July, the Orange Lodge parade as a celebration of this event. It attracts a lot of criticism as it is anti-Catholic. Richard and Elsie were married in St. Silas Church. Ringo sang in the choir, attended Sunday School and sometimes accompanied his mum on marches with the Orange Lodge band.
Marie Maguire said her family, who were Catholic, had no problems getting along with the Starkeys. The two families made a conscious choice not to let religious bigotry spoil a friendship and so they joined in each other’s religious celebrations. It was forward thinking for its time.
When The Beatles visited India, he was not as enthusiastic about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as the others and didn’t take to meditation in the same way. However, he says that he has learned a lot from meditation, and often speaks of love and peace. In 2010, Ringo announced that “after a winding life of enlightenment, for me, God is in my life. I don’t hide from that: I think the search has been on since the ‘60s.”
Musical Influences
As an incentive for coming home from hospital, Richy’s step-father Harry promised to buy him a drum kit and he travelled to London and returned with a small drum kit, for which he paid £10. Richy’s musical career started with his friends from work, including Eddie Miles, his next-door neighbour from 11, Admiral Grove (Dingle). They formed the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group and first played at Peel Hall (Dingle). Soon they were given the spot as the resident band at the Florence Institute on Mill Street (Dingle). When Miles married in 1958, it signalled the end of the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group.
Richy was offered the position of drummer in a few local groups, but decided to join the Darktown Skiffle Group. He met Alan Caldwell—who had changed his name to ‘Rory Storm’—at a talent contest. Rory’s group were playing rock ‘n’ roll, not the primitive skiffle music that had been played on tea-chest basses and washboards.
That is what ultimately persuaded Ritchie to join Storm’s group. On 25 March 1959, Richy made his debut in Rory’s band, Al Caldwell’s Texans. The band later changed its name to The Raving Texans and eventually to Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They even took on cowboy personas and Ritchie became ‘Rings’ because of the number of rings he wore. His first name evolved into ‘Ringo’ and Starkey became ‘Starr’. (At one point George Harrison wanted to join Rory Storm and the Hurricanes but was turned down because he was too young).
When Derry and the Seniors—the first Merseybeat band who went to Hamburg—returned to Liverpool from Hamburg in October 1960, they were replaced by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at the Kaiserkeller. The Hurricanes played split shifts with The Beatles, where the friendship between Ringo and John, Paul and George was forged and cemented. On 15 October 1960, Hurricanes band-member Lou Walters decided to make an amateur record. He needed a band and so he asked John, Paul and George to join him, together with Ringo. They recorded Gershwin’s “Summertime” and “Fever”. And so for the first time, John, Paul, George and Ringo appeared together.
Ringo eventually became disillusioned with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes because he didn’t see them progressing beyond summer seasons at Butlin’s holiday camps in Britain. At the end of 1961, Hamburg club owner Peter Eckhorn came to Liverpool to book The Beatles to back Tony Sheridan for his Top Ten Club, but Brian Epstein priced them out of that deal. Eckhorn went in another direction and recruited Ringo after seeing him perform. Eckhorn offered him £30 a week, plus a flat and a car if he would travel to Germany. After a few weeks in Hamburg, Ringo became frustrated and disillusioned with the erratic Sheridan and returned to Liverpool. Sheridan was a great influence on the Liverpool bands, but on stage he would change the songs he wanted to perform or the key he was playing it in, and this made him unpopular with some musicians. Many believe Tony Sheridan could have had a greater recording career. Unfortunately, he was unreliable and not motivated to progress beyond Hamburg and his association with The Beatles.
When Ringo returned to Liverpool, he hooked up with Rory Storm once again. His reasoning was that his worst day drumming was better than returning to work at the factory of Henry Hunt and Son Ltd., making school equipment. Seeking a life away from England, he applied to the Chamber of Commerce in Houston, Texas. However, when he saw the complexity of the application forms, he gave up on that idea. Shortly after, Ringo received a phone call from Brian Epstein that changed his life. He later recalled, “I’d played with them so many times anyway down The Cavern. We were at Butlin’s again and Epstein phoned through saying ‘Oh, I’d like you to join The Beatles,’ and I said ‘Oh great, when?’ and he said ‘Tonight’ and I said ‘No I can’t join tonight because we have a gig here, so I’ll come on Saturday,’ that was our day off. Liverpool went mad but they were soon over it”.
Ringo Starr joined The Beatles on 18 August 1962 as replacement for Pete Best, making his debut at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight (Wirral). The Beatles returned to Hamburg in December 1962. Their first trip to Hamburg had solidified them as a group with Pete Best; on their fourth trip, they had the same experience with Ringo.
Mike Rice, the Liverpool born drummer in Merseybeat band The Senators, met Ringo when he first joined The Beatles. The two shared a love of drumming and conversation came easily, recalled Rice.
“My wife Doreen and I used to go on the Rockin’ River Cruises on the Royal Iris. There was a great atmosphere and good music. One day, we’d arrived there handy, and The Beatles were setting up their equipment. The others had finished, except for Ringo. So I went over for a chat. Behind him, lounging on the seats was John Lennon, laid out flat with his eyes shut. What a sight. If only I’d had my camera.
“I said ‘Hello’ and we started to talk about drums, as I’m a drummer. We were talking for a little while, when I asked him about the set-up of his hi-hat cymbals. I told him that I knew he used a hi-hat a lot and asked him what adjustments he used. He replied with a quizzical look on his face, ‘I don’t know what you mean?’ ‘Well,’ I responded, ‘the screw under the hi-hat, what angle do you have it at?’ Again he looked puzzled, so I reached for it to show him the adjusting screw. Where the screw should have been, there was just a little hole. He just looked at me and I wonder if at that point he didn’t know what an adjustment screw was.
“It was a nice memory. Ringo was a great fella, down-to-earth and easy to talk to. There was no ego or a big head about him, considering they became so famous. Plus, how often after that did Ringo set his own kit up? Not long, I reckon. He had someone to do it for him”.
Elsie and Richard Starkey
Ringo’s parents met at Cooper’s Bakery where they worked, and married at St. Silas Church where four years later, young Richy was christened. They loved the high life and danced at places like Reece’s in town. That all changed when Elsie gave birth to Richy. She could no longer go dancing, but Richard wanted to, so he did.
When Richy turned three, his parents divorced and his dad moved out of their home at 9, Madryn Street. Ritchie’s dad moved back in with his parents who lived down the road at 59. After a few months, Richard’s financial help ceased and Elsie had to go to work as a barmaid. When Ritchie was about thirteen, Elsie asked him for approval to marry Harry Graves. She was a lovely lady who was popular with her neighbours, like Margaret Grose who currently lives in Ringo’s Admiral Grove home.
Elsie worked so much that she enlisted help from her friend’s daughter, Marie Maguire, who was four years older than Ritchie. As well as helping him to read and write, Marie took on the role of bigger sister and brought young Richy everywhere. They took tram rides, played in Princes Park, visited cinema houses like the Gaumont, or the Mayfair and Rivoli on Aigburth Road. It’s almost certain that Elsie was forever in her debt.
Harry Graves
Harry Graves was Ringo’s stepfather, though Richy would refer to Harry as his ‘stepladder’. Harry worked at the American Burtonwood Air Base, near Warrington, and it was he who travelled to London and bought Ringo a second-hand set of drums after he had been so ill. When Harry died, Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach attended the funeral at Huyton Cemetery, which took place on 1 September 1994.
David Bedford
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