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We’re the only two who’ve experienced all this who are still here.’ He’s singing and playing on my latest album and I played on several of his. We don’t live in each other’s pockets, but if we’re in the same country, we get together. I’m not surprised he’s still mates with Macca. Once you realise that, Ringo is a very engaging man. I am the last remaining Beatle.’ĭeadpan is his default setting. ‘But I think it’s people on the outside who perceive Paul as thinking he’s the only one left. ‘There is an element of truth in it,’ Ringo says, before pausing for thought. The best jokes are based on truth, so does he feel like the forgotten man sometimes? And is Paul that self-important? I did my bit in Los Angeles, where I live half the time. ‘I thought it was a great sketch it worked really well. It’s funny and self-aware, but how on Earth did Comic Relief persuade Ringo to do it? They all fall silent in awed agreement – until a familiar, flat voice pipes up from the corner: ‘What about me?’ I was in the biggest rock ’n’ roll band in the history of music… I am the last remaining Beatle.’ ‘You all know that the only person round this table who can go is me. 'I think it's people on the outside who perceive Paul (McCartney) as thinking he's the only one left. ‘We’re the only two remaining Beatles, although he likes to think he’s the only one.’ ‘We are as close as we want to be,’ he says, laughing.
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As the only two members left to face old age, how do they get on? Yet Ringo has ‘only’ made an estimated £200 million from the Beatles – far less than Sir Paul McCartney, one of the two main songwriters. But the masterstroke was to wait a long time before releasing their 13 albums on iTunes – making sure they were remastered and repackaged, and the clamour was intense. More than two million of us own the computer game The Beatles: Rock Band. The Beatles brand is bigger than ever: they passed a billion record sales a long time ago, and they’ve conquered the world again lately, thanks to new technology. And we are surrounded by such ghosts, here in the offices of Apple, the company the Beatles set up to run their business affairs. Ringo is small, skinny and familiar – that habit of sitting back in the chair, head up like a meerkat, echoes the images of him drumming in the Cavern, at Shea Stadium, on the roof of the Apple building. He’s still dressing like a rock star – dark suit, dark glasses, three big silver rings in his ear lobe, making it droop – with brushed-forward hair and a closely cut beard, both of which look suspiciously black. They look at that guy from A Hard Day’s Night and think, “That’s still him.” They want you to be that person they related to, in a movie, on record.’Īt the age of 70, Ringo is preparing to go on the road again, touring Britain and Europe A lot of people outside the Beatles want to keep me in that world. ‘It is difficult, because people don’t want you to grow up. How does it feel to be a Beatle, at his age? He rarely gives interviews, and gets frustrated when all people want to talk about is the Fab Four, but today says he’s ‘at ease with it’. Nearly half a century later, at the age of 70, the boy in that picture is preparing to go on the road again, touring Britain and Europe with the latest incarnation of his All Starr Band. George was going to have a garage.’īut Ringo was a drummer before the Beatles and he still is, long after them. ‘Even Paul thought, “Well, I’ll probably end up as a writer.” So did John. In the picture (below) he looks the most assured, by far. Paul is whistling, George is distracted, John is wide-eyed and Ringo is staring at the camera, his feet up on a seat. The black-and-white image shows the Beatles in suits in the early Sixties, waiting to appear on a television show. Ringo Starr looks at a photograph of his young self and laughs. A lot of people outside the Beatles want to keep me in that world,' said Ringo Starr 'It's difficult, because people don't want you to grow up.