Ringo Starr

This is a picture of Ringo at his first Beatles recording session, 9/4/62, using his Premier Drum kit, which he would soon replace with the Ludwig kit after seeing session drummer Andy White use a Ludwig kit on 9/10/62.

http://www.beatlesource.com/savage/1962/62.09.04 emi/thumbs/21.jpg

Here are some more photos of Ringo using his original Premier Drum Kit. Most drummers have commented that they had different sound and feel than the Ludwig kits.

http://www.beatlesource.com/savage/1962/62.09.XX majestic 1/fall62majestic.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I posted this on another site in response to the 13 reason to respect Ringo and 20 years ago I would have agreed with those reasons

I'm not familiar with the 13 reasons and can only get a basic idea based off what you've written to counter them.

From what I can gather, I don't think I'd actually rate many of them though. Hard to take a lot of it seriously to be honest. If things like volume, drum risers, grip and brand of kit are being used to so push the Ringo cause then you're bound to be disappointed. What did you expect? They are truly feeble arguments to begin with. They serve no purpose in highlighting anything that endears him to people in the first place.
 
*To say that all the drumming in the ‘50s were heavy is a little too much, there were all kinds of drumming: sutile, heavy, jazz-tainted, country-orientated, good, bad, loud and soft, it all depended on what artist was recording and who was producing. Besides, on those days ¿who really, REALLY knew the name of the drummer of Elvis, Berry, Perkins or any other star?
*The thing with Ringo and his grip, his use of risers, his loud drumming sound, etc, it all comes from one thing and one thing only: Visibility. Because he was with the Beatles he was everywhere: TV, newspapers, magazines, even movies. 73 million people in 23.240.000 homes watched the lads on the first Ed Sullivan Show and 70 million in 22.450.000 on the second show ¿who could be more influential at that time? He was not only a very fine drummer, kids looked at him and said: if he can play I can too. He didn't looked like a hero and kids liked that. As simple as that. ¿Was he really influential? Well, you could ask the Ludwig guys, they had more then $6 millions in profits in ’63 and in’64 they double that numbers, all thanks to Ringo. For three years they sold drum kits like crazy, working 24/7 to fulfill the orders. And he played those kits really loud. Listen to him and his Premier kit in the first Beatle LP. He was loud, period. Ask D.J.Fontana if Ringo was good at time-keeping.
*They were hearing rock’n’roll at nights in England, Radio Luxembourg specifically transmitted at 8 o’clock from the continent. They heard Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley & the Comets, Carl Perkins, Little Richard and minor acts like Freddie Bell & the Bellboys.
*Ringo bought his first drum kit, a single-head Ajax kit, british made, in the summer of ’58, 46 quid, I believe. In november he joined Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, he used his Ajax all the way through november ’61 when he bought a Premier kit in Mahogany Duroplastic finish, either in Hessy’s or Rushworths. He used that kit when he joined the Beatles, he recorded their first LP with it and played with it up until May’63. He, along with Brian Epstein bought his first Ludwig kit at Ivor Arbiter’s Drum City shop in London. He fulfilled the order or, for better say, Brian Epstein did for him in late April and the kit was delivered to him in May 12th 1963 just in time to appear on TV, the show was Thank Your Lucky Stars, taped on Alpha Television Studios, Aston, Birmingham and aired on the 18th. His Premier kit was included in the purchase, displayed on Drum City’s window and later sold to an australian guy.
*The drummer was a position that the Beatles never really fulfilled until Pete Best arrived. And he was only taken because they needed a drummer to go to Hamburg. Allan Williams arranged the trip of the Beatles in early August, 1960. Pete made an audition in August 12th and they made their debut at the Indra Club of Bruno Koschmider the 17th. So, is safe to say that Best become part of the band just because they desperately needed a drummer. Besides, Pete was just an average drummer, adequate to make girls scream and wet their panties but nothing else. Specially for recording purposes he was useless. And he never, NEVER could have played what Ringo did, listen to those Decca tapes, he was a pointless, mediocre, uninspiring drummer. He didn’t merge with the others, he was quiet, distant, kind of apathetic whenever the others were frantic, crazy, wild.
*¿Were they jealous of Pete because of his good looks? You bet, but still he was a mediocre drummer. He was bound to be dismissed from the band as early as January’62 when they failed at the Decca audition. The boys didn’t told him right away that they failed, they “forgot” to tell him. Then George went to Ringo’s house to talk with his family about Ringo joining the band. And John and Paul traveled to Skegnes to talk to Ringo. He didn’t comment this talk with Rory Storm. In August 14th John telephoned Ringo while he was at Skgness with Rory and offered the job. Pete played with them for the last time at The Cavern on the 15th and then Johnny Hutchison(of The Big Three) replaced him on two gigs on 16/17th and then Ringo joined them the 18th at Hulme Hall, Birkenhead. In August 22th they were filmed at The Cavern.
* The Big Question: ¿why they didn’t approached Ringo before? Well, he was playing with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, a big name in Liverpool in those days but they were going nowhere, playing the same songs over and over. When the lads called him in 1962, they had a recording contract and that was atractive enough to get Ringo. Without it, they were at the same point that the Hurricanes.
*The story about Bobby Graham being asked by Epstein to play with the Beatles in June’62, well...Pete was their drummer in June’62 and wasn’t dismissed until August 16 so...go figure. I checked a few Beatles forums and websites and couldn’t find a thing about it but ¿why Brian would ask a professional drummer to join his then-unknown band?
*The same with the story about Andy White claiming that he played in the Please, Please Me version that’s on their first LP, that he can recognized the way he tuned his drums and that Ringo bought a Ludwig kit because of his kit...White recorded a version of that song but it was the slow version of it. Right after that recording George Martin told John and Paul that the song would be better if they increased the tempo and worked out some better, tighter harmonies.They did their homework for the November 26th session in wich they recorded the version we all know now...with Ringo on drums. And some have claimed that Ringo liked Ludwig because he had played in Tony Mansfield’s kit(he was the Dakotas’drummer). White played at de September 11th session, Ringo bought his kit in late April'63 ¿because of White using the same? Hmmmm.
*¿Isn’t really weird that we are still discussing about Ringo(and sometimes bashing him) 40-something years after the Beatles broke up? ¿Is this all necessary after all?

PS: excuse my somewhat poor english.
 
Which snare drum has he been using on tour with his All Star band?
I checked Ludwig's Artist page but no luck.
 
Which snare drum has he been using on tour with his All Star band?
I checked Ludwig's Artist page but no luck.

I'd bet even money he's using a Legacy 5.5 or 6.5 x14.He was using a 6.5 with a double row of small classic lugs on the black sparkle "star" kit.

Steve B
 
Love him or not, he is now in the Hall of Fame on his own merit. Peace and Love..
 

Attachments

  • 10982865_10152868378517677_3011167215091634355_o.jpg
    10982865_10152868378517677_3011167215091634355_o.jpg
    46.7 KB · Views: 1,315
He deserves to be there. Iconic drummer. Maybe not the "best" drummer, but definitely had his own style, and for that, he gets bonus points. He's continued a career, at whatever level, and is rock steady. that's the consummate professional to me. Peace. This girl on my facebook did his lighting on his last tour. She loved the job. I got to see some nice photos of it.
 
One thing that impresses me the most (besides gigging in his seventies) is his is devotion to the Ludwig Brand after all these decades.
That sort of loyalty in business is rare these days.
 
Are you sure they didn't mean to say "Bernard Purdie?"
 
Yeah I saw that and my first thought was "wow, a rock and roll legend, drum hero, and cultural icon has to share an honor with effing Green Day" and I felt sad about the world.

Then I thought "oh this is probably how those guys who earned MBEs on the battlefield felt sharing it with The Beatles" :p
 
Ringo has always seemed to me to be the most amiable of the lads. Kind of like the sort of fellow that would invite you over for sandwiches and a chat.

I heard Tom T-bone Wolk was that way as well.

https://www.facebook.com/DrumTalkTV/videos/852044764874189/

I liked it when Ringo would open the hi hat up a little and start that Mersey Beat wash.

For example: On "The End" about 4 measures into the part where the guitar comes in and the vocal is Love You, Love You, etc... he cracks open the hi hats and whish shuuup whish shuuup... that's so nice.
 
Last edited:
I just finished the first chapter of the new biography, Ringo: With a Little Help, by Michael Seth Starr, no relation. It seems to be a good read to this point.
 
Ringo's Wikipedia entry has the front page today. Unbelievably, I hadn't ever read it through... well written and with a lot of good tidbits. Happy birthday!
 
Somehow, I missed this on YouTube. I didn't see it posted on DW in the recent past.

Ringo like you've never seen him before, up close and personal (2011?), relaxed as usual, fooling around and having a great time with other musicians recording:
https://youtu.be/SUnLVCZuGa8
 
Back
Top