Hi Steve, I can echo Cheryl's enthusiastic review of Ringo in Las Vegas. I saw him in Portland as well, and the Vegas show seemed even more relaxed. These guys are clearly enjoying themselves. Sheila E. seemed to be the audience favorite. The woman is fierce! I thought it was most generous to Ringo to allow her brother Warren and her father ("Pops") up on stage. They also joined the band for "With a Little Help", with Warren on Ringo's kit and Pops on the congas.

The incident of the "fan" who leapt on stage was most alarming. He was wearing a tour t-shirt, and when he approached the stage. Ringo was most magnanimous, asking "no violence, no violence." I was sitting in the front row, right in front of Ringo, so it was a little unsettling.

Despite this unnerving opening, the band played on, and gave us all a fine show. Before "With a Little Help" I managed to deliver a single rose straight to Ringo, and that made my night. Despite all the crazies, he still loves to perform, and is still open to contact with the fans. That takes a lotta heart.

Sylvia in Portland

9-1-2001 Woohooooooo!!! Man, was THAT a great concert!!! Just got home, exhausted!

Ringo was in TOP form, looked absolutely fabulous, energetic, dancing and clowing around, having a BLAST, sounded fantastic, too!! He did jumping jacks during the musical interlude on one peppy song towards the end, and the man just didn't stop!!! Sheila E's brother and Dad both came up on stage and did some drumming (incredibly musical family!!!!), Roger Hodgson was fantastic on lead guitar, Greg Lake was incredible on his songs, Ian Hunter did a great job, wow, it was just incredible. Really didn't know all the songs that were played, it was a very different All Starr Band than the one we saw in 1999, but it worked well.

We were front row center, a birthday present for me, and I took a bouquet of roses up to Ringo just after he finished singing "You're 16" and was talking about loving the audience and how everything he hears from us sounds like "we love you, Ringo". Didn't get a handshake or anything, but that's cool. The stage lights were up very bright, and I just kinda gently tossed the bouquet up by his feet. As I was returning to my seat and Ringo picked up the flowers, he kinda complained that he didn't know who they were from, guess he'd been blinded by the stage lights. Still, it was really neat, I was the first to give him flowers (and the only one to give him yellow flowers), and I'd enclosed some of the piccies I took during his '99 tour, hope he gets a look at them and enjoys them.

At the very beginning of the show, some idiot rushed the stage and got up on stage and security was pretty damned lax about getting up there and getting the guy off stage. Really scared me, I mean, anything could have happened!!! I'm fresh back from the R&R HoF and the John Lennon exhibit, and I was seriously shocked that someone could get that close to Ringo without intervention. Thankfully, the fellow apparently only wanted a handshake/hug, and he was hustled away pretty quickly, but not quickly enough for my tastes! But Ringo was really cool about it, and once they got the guy off stage, Ringo continued singing.

I shot a roll of film in 1.5 songs (lol), and should have the results back tomorrow, hopefully I'll have something halfway decent. My only regret is that I didn't take additional film, but I'd been told cameras were DEFINITELY not allowed and I figured I was gonna be busted any minute. Turns out they could have cared less, and I probably could have taken 15 rolls and they wouldn't have batted an eye. Live and learn.

Tomorrow night's the last night on the tour, and I'm so glad we got to see them, wish we were going to San Diego tomorrow to see them again!!!

Lessee, Ringo songs were Photograph, Act Naturally, (and all the following in no particular order!) Boys, Yellow Submarine, It Don't Come Easy, You're 16, I'm the Greatest, Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go, Back Off Boogaloo, With A Little Help From My Friends, I Wanna Be Your Man, the No No Song. I think there might have been one other, but can't for the life of me remember what it is right now. BUNCH of Supertramp stuff, Emerson/Lake and Palmer stuff, too, then a bunch of stuff I didn't know from Howard Jones, Sheila E (and family!), and Ian Hunter.

One very funny thing, when they finished "It Don't Come Easy" (a REALLY good version!), Ringo stepped up to the microphone and said something along the lines of "Now, usually, this is where we all run off stage and hide in the dark and YOU all make a lot of noise, then we wait and listen and finally run back on stage as if we're surprised you want to hear more. But we're not going to do that, so just go ahead and make all your noise." We DID and they just stood on stage and grinned and talked amongst themselves as we cheered, and then they went on with the "encore"!!! It was GREAT!!!

Oh, and when Greg Lake was singing one song, I was singing along and happened to look over at Ringo on drums, could swear he was looking RIGHT at me and started smiling. I smiled back, his smile grew and so did mine. (Humor me, ok? Just agree, he was smiling RIGHT at me!!!)

Closest I got to the Ringmeister was something like 3-4 feet when I was dropping the roses off on stage, but our seats were maybe 10-15 feet away from him and that's all.

Great evening, a definite great birthday!!

All the best, Cheryl