Had a great time on Tuesday night at the Ringo concert. Sat 4th row center. Surprisingly security was non-existant. They did not check bags at the door and it was a breeze to take in a camera. In fact during the show people were walking up the aisle to snap photos and security allowed it. Across the aisle from me were Barbara Bach and her sister. Hugh Jackman was two rows in front and Marv Albert two rows behind. Best songs from the All-Stars were, Who Can It Be Now, The Land Down Under, The Living Years, Missing You. Sheila E can play those drums!! They all joined together without Ringo for an acoustic version of Here Comes The Sun which was a prelude to Ringo singing Never Without You. At one point Ringo called a young boy down to the stage and autographed a cardboard cutout of a small child.

Rumors were flying that Paul might make a surprise appearance due to the news articles spotting him in NYC the day before. I read a blurb that he was signing autographs at the Monkee Bar located at 60 East 54th Street. We thought the magical moment had arrived when Ringo made an announcement that some special guests were going to join them for the last number. Turned out to be Stevie VanZandt, Mark Hudson and a third person I did not recognize. They sang back up on A Little Help From My Friends which closed the show.

(7/31/03) From Patti Murawski (Jennie Swenton and Kris Tash contributed to this report...):

Hi Steve...

Ringo's show rolled into NYC Tuesday night, to Radio City Music Hall...

I forgot to mention in my Boston report that the set list changed a bit in Boston (but was the same here in NYC as in Boston). We Can Work It Out was taken out, and two or three solo spots were added in... I was out very late after the show, so sorry to say I don't remember the song titles except for John Waite singing "NYC Girl." These songs were slotted in before "Here Comes the Sun."

Question on everyone's mind after reports of the past few days of Paul McCartney in town was would he show up for the show. He didn't. Roger Friedman of Fox News is speculating there is a rift between Paul and Ringo. (Perhaps Paul and Ringo didn't want to deal with "BEATLES REUNION" splashed across the headlines the next day, being the sole survivors of the group...that would really take away from the fact that it is Ringo's tour.)

That out of the way, here's some of my observations of the evening...

Whereas in Boston the sound suffered greatly, at a venue like the world renown Radio City Music Hall, the sound was fabulous... and here's the rub; the better sound quality only brought out the flaws in the performance. I really respect Colin Hay, John Waite, and Paul Carrack, but there were times when it sounded like they didn't know the songs they were playing.

Members of my party all agreed there seems to be a general lack of cohesiveness in this band.

Colin's guitar work sounded better than Boston, maybe because I could hear it better, but it's a disappointment they don't have someone stronger on guitar, especially for "Never Without You" which relies on the guitar line to make its point about it being a tribute to George... A bassist pal that I met after the show wasn't impressed with John Waite's skills... However, I thought everyone's vocal performances were excellent, particularly John Waite who is very popular in NYC despite not having played here in years.

Ringo and Sheila E. seem to enjoy throwing good natured barbs at each other, and Sheila enjoys teasing the men on their "performance"... There was a short interview with Sheila in the freebie magazine given out at the show where she said when she rehearsed with Ringo two years ago for the 2001 tour he asked her why she was playing so loud, so forcibly, as if she had no amplification. She said if she had to "carry all you men, so if I'm going to take care of you I have to be strong." When Ringo told her that makes him have to work harder, she said, "Well I told you I was going to kick your butt" and they had a good laugh. She went on to say that later on in the tour Ringo's daughter Lee told Sheila "My dad hasn't played like this in 10 years. You've really brought him to another level of playing." What's that old saying about behind every good man there's a good woman?? ;-) Sheila gave her usual energy charged performance, and she appears to be more comfortable in the All Starrs than on the last tour.

Flat Stanley made an appearance in the middle of the show... For those unfamiliar with him, he is a children's character. In the book, Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown, Stanley is squashed flat by a falling bulletin board. One of the many advantages is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by travelling in an envelope. Students make paper Flat Stanleys and begin a journal with him for a few days. Then Flat Stanley and the journal are sent to another school where students there treat Flat Stanley as a guest and complete the journal. Flat Stanley and the journal are then returned to the original sender. Students can plot his travels on maps and share the contents of the journal. Pictures of Flat Stanley's adventures are also shared. It teaches reading, communication, writing skills, art skills, geography...and so on. He's had quite a few famous adventures including a trip on the Space Shuttle, to! the White House, etc..

Well, apparently before the show Ringo was aware there would be a child in the audience with a Flat Stanley character, and asked where Flat Stanley was. A boy came forward to the stage, but was being held back by the security in front of the stage. Ringo walked to the edge of the stage and chided the security person saying, "Let him up, look at you man, stand up" (the guy was about 6.5 foot tall and burly) and scolded him for his treatment of the young boy pointing out their differences in size. The boy handed up his Flat Stanley character, and a pen. Ringo got down on one knee and took his time to sign the character, and carefully hand it back to the boy. As it happened, a friend of mine ran into the boy and his family outside the show, and the boy proudly showed off his Flat Stanley character which was signed by Ringo with the city and year.

All the band members with the exception of Sheila and Ringo wore shades of black and gray...this being New York doncha know... Paul Carrack was in black with a sand colored long sleeved shirt over his black tee, Colin similarly attired, John Waite in pinstriped trousers and a gray shirt and gray Edwardian jacket. Waite was always a thin person if memory serves, and he was introduced with "he's kept his teenage greyhound figure after all these years" or similar wording, as he is even thinner these days. Sheila wore all white, while Mark Rivera was in black with a light colored shirt over his tee shirt. Ringo wore a dark tee shirt with a sparkly silver number "7" on the front (his lucky number?) with a long sleeved Cossack looking shirt over it, jeans with red stripes down the sides and zips at the ankles, and monstrous black and white trainers. For the second half, he discarded the overshirt and donned a black vest (waistcoat) flecked with silver sparkles.

There was the usual Ringo joke with the intro of Yellow Sub, "if you don't know the name of this one you're in the wrong venue!"

After "Who Can It Be Now" when Ringo came to the front he started dancing and singing the song, then said, "I wish I had written that song, I wish I had written all of the songs, but I did write this one," to introduce "Photograph."

At the end of the show, Ringo doesn't run off stage to wait for an interval before the encore. He does his "last" song and says, we're all adults here, we're not going to run off and hide in a dark corner off the stage and you make noise to get us to come back because you know we're coming back, we know we're coming back...so just make the noise! Joining them on stage for "With A Little Help from my Friends" was Simon Kirke, past All Starr and Bad Company member, Little Steven (Van Zandt) of E Street band, Ringo's producer and Roundhead member Mark Hudson, and Gary Burr, songwriter and Roundhead member.

If you like to get up and dance and have a good time at the show, New York isn't the place to do it, as the front rows are usually occupied by industry people, celebs and bigwigs that sit on their hands. The front sections on the floor were shut out of the regular ticket sales for the charity sales that were announced about 6 weeks before the show, so there were a lot of suits in the front rows that only occasionally made it to their feet to sway to the music. Seemed that a lot of the "regular" fans were up in the balconies. Consequently there didn't seem to be a lot of rapport with the audience and the band as there had been in Boston when a large amount of the front side sections ran down to the stage half way through the show. That's not to say that they weren't appreciative of the performance, everyone was well received. One thing that struck me about this line up was that at the end of the show they didn't gather together at the f! ront of the stage to take a bow as past ensembles had. They just seemed to put their instruments down and amble off the stage.

Barbara Bach was at the show as one of the gals in my group saw her outside the theatre talking to Gary Burr, but I didn't spot her inside.

After the show members Paul Carrack, Colin Hay and John Waite as well as Mark Hudson took the time to sign autographs for fans outside the theatre.