Ringo Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA., 9/4/03

Here's a look at the Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band show at the Garden Theatre on the Villa Montalvo grounds in Saratoga, California on September 4th, 2003. (My past reviews of Ringo shows and Paul McCartney shows can be found at http://www.geocities.com/heyjude160/conrevs.htm )

This is the second Ringo tour in a row where the lineup seemed like it was too weak on paper, but upon seeing the actual thing in person, it was surprisngly strong. This 2003 band is not just "a pretty good show", it's one of the best Ringo shows I've seen, and I've now seen the past five tours. I don't think the other artists' material on this tour is quite as strong as some past tours such as the '97 tour, but this new band makes up for it with their surprisingly strong instrumental backing and even stronger vocal backing. This is one of the best All-Starr bands yet in terms of backing Ringo on his own numbers.

First, a few things not directly to do with the show itself. Still no CD or DVD being sold at the shows. With only three or so shows left on the tour, it doesn't look like either will be sold at the shows. I kind of thought the original word that the CD and DVD would be sold at shows within two weeks was overly optimistic. It's almost the end of the tour, and all we have are flyers offering mailorder sales of the CD. Which brings me to my other concern here. Is this just a private release being done by Ringo and David Fishof, or will this CD be released in stores as well? I'm a bit apprehensive about ordering this through mail order, as so little has been publicized about the release. And what of the DVD? Is it still coming, and if so, will it be released in stores? Hopefully they'll at least start selling this stuff and/or giving more info about it on Ringo's website. If anybody out there has ordered the CD and receives it, please report in to the excellent AbbeyRd's Web Page!

In any event, I grabbed a program for $10. Not bad considering what I've paid for programs for other bands. This is only the second time in the past five tours that Ringo has had a program (the other was the 2000 tour), yet this was the first time in the past five tours that there wasn't a poster, which was a bit disappointing since I had a poster from each of the past four tours. Oh well. Some of the items seemed way overpriced ($35 for t-shirts, $30 for the "Ringo Rama" CD w/bonus DVD which can be found in stores for under $20 easily), while other material was priced somewhat reasonably ($15 mug, buttons and the like for $3-$5).

This particular show at Villa Montalvo's intimate Garden Theatre venue was Villa Montalvo's annual summer gala and fundraiser, which meant tickets were way more expensive than either normal Montalvo shows or normal Ringo shows. The reserved seats were as high as $300, while general admission seating was $75. But, this is a very, very intimate venue. It holds 1100 according to the venue's website, and the general admission section seems to only hold maybe 200-300. I was able to stake out 5th or 6th row general admission, which runs along next to the reserved seating (rather than behind it), which means I was about 10 feet away from $300 seats, while I paid $75. Very expensive seats, but still worth it for the show and this intimate venue, which was the most intimate venue I've ever seen Ringo at. In any event, the event had a slighly snooty atmosphere, with a big gala dinner visible for the "high rollers" (who may have met Ringo in some sort of meet-and-greet, or so I've been told, I don't know for sure). But the people in the general admission section seemed to be normal fans (as were some of the reserved seats as well), and was a great audience (enthusiastic, but not drunk or belligerent, etc.).

Ringo opened up the set with "It Don't Come Easy". With the first few notes of the first song, and through the entire show, I marveled at what was easily the cleanest-sounding sound system and mix I've ever heard at a concert. The volume level was perfect (maybe a bit too loud for some, but just right I think), but more importantly the mix was crystal clear, everything was mixed just right, from the drums to the guitars to the vocals and so on, and that is pretty rare for a show to sound that way from the get-go. "Honey Don't" was nice to hear, I don't think he's done it since the '89 or '95 tour.

"Memphis In Your Mind", contrary to some reports I've read from other shows, sounded great, maybe even better than the album version.

Paul Carrack was up with "How Long", which I recognized a bit. But it was a good song, and Carrack's voice was excellent.

Colin Hay was up next with "Land Down Under", and sounded great on a nice song. Hay's guitar playing is nowhere near the caliber of Peter Frampton, but he plays with a lot of feel and plays within his ability, which left me with an overall impression that he was actually a pretty good guitarist who worked his ability in perfectly with the band on his songs and more importanly the other members' songs.

John Waite was up next with "Isn't It Time." Waite has an excellent voice, and his bass playing was just fine. Not a virtuoso like Jack Bruce, nor in the same league as Greg Lake. But he was steady and laid back, which works well within the framework of this band. The only drawback to Waite is that I found all of his songs to be slightly bland. I have a suspicion he has better songs in his catalog of songs, but has to play the sort of power ballad type songs that are his hits. Nevertheless, his songs aren't bad at all, just not my favorites.

Sheila E. was up next with "A Love Bizarre", which sounded just like the last tour. Decent song, very good performance. Sheila did more drum improvisations and an extended solo. She is a virtuoso on the drums and percussion, no question. And she has a good voice as well.

Ringo was up next with "Boys", and it sounded just like past tours. That's a good thing, though. Although, while Ringo did finally change up the setlist more noticeably on this tour, I would still like to see him drop songs like "Boys", "I Wanna Be Your Man", or "Act Naturally" and add in songs like "What Goes On" and "Octopus's Garden."

Colin Hay performed "Overkill", and it was another excellent performance. This guy has a really unique and great voice. And most importantly, all of his songs were just great songs.

Ringo came up next with three in a row, "Act Naturally", "You're Sixteen", and "Yellow Submarine", and sounded great on all of them. Ringo's voice sounded even better than he has in the past. And he was in a great mood as was the whole band.

With Ringo off stage, the rest of the band did their take on "Here Comes the Sun." It worked really well, with Rivera and Hay on guitar, and everybody singing. They all harmonized amazingly well.

With Ringo back on, they did "Never Without You." This was the only song where they seemed to not have it totally together. The backing vocals were a bit light and sort of tentative. Other than that, it all sounded fine.

"Don't Pass Me By" was next, which of course was great to finally see and hear live. Ringo started it out on piano, just like he did at the "Storytellers" show a few years ago. But the difference here was that he stayed on the piano longer while he sang the first portion of the song. They started the song out without drums, with the band just harmonizing behind Ringo. Then they kind of finish off an abbreviated version of the song, but they start it back up again with Sheila on drums and Ringo moving to sing on the microphone standing up.

"No No Song" was next, and went off without a hitch.

Paul Carrack then performed "Tempted", which I was really looking forward to hearing as I really like the song and Squeeze in general. Carrack's voice was great, and I think we all know that special moment when you get to see Ringo drumming on one of your favorite songs by another artist.

John Waite was up next with "When I See You Smile". For this song, Rivera moved to bass and Waite just sang the lead vocal at the front. The song is okay, but a bit bland as I said before.

Sheila E. came up next with "Glamorous Life", and it was a wild performance just like the last tour. A good change of pace for the All-Starr band. One song like this works well.

Ringo was up with "I Wanna Be Your Man", spot-on performance as usual.

Carrack was up again with "Living Years", and it was another great songs and performance. The whole band pulled this one off well.

Waite came up next with "Missing You", one of his obvious big hits. It was a good performance, but again only a decent song. A bit too power ballad-y for me. Rivera was on bass again, with Waite up front singing once again.

Hay finished off the non-Ringo set with "Who Can It Be Now." Another great performance, and another great song. This guy was just really surprising, great singing and guitar playing, and his songs were just a lot better than I had ever assumed. For some reason, I hadn't given much thought to these songs before, even though I had heard them all before.

Ringo then finished off the set with three more songs we've come to know in the setlist, "Photograph", "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go", and "With A Little Help From My Friends."

Other miscellaneous notes: Some of the expensive seat holders went to their seats late, still filing in after the first couple of songs. Ringo told the audience jokingly that he would wait for the latecomers to get to their seats. He joked "I've had people walk out on me before, but never walking in!" He then corrected himself saying "I haven't really ever had anybody walk out on me before." This would become a rather ironic statement when, near the end of the show, some of the reserved seat holders actually started leaving before the end of the show. With two songs to go, after "Photograph", Ringo (pretty much jokingly) singled out a blonde lady leaving by saying "Hey you're gonna miss the show. Hey you! You're gonna miss out blondie!"

During the final song, a few people continued to leave and Ringo kind of just looked at them and shrugged. Ringo seemed to warm up more to the general admission seats, looking at them more and playing up to them a bit more. Just the way I saw it, maybe I'm wrong. Some sort of auction took place at this "gala" event, because Ringo congratulated those who won the auctions, and people in the front rows cheered, and Ringo noted "Oh, all those people are sitting up here!", or something to that affect.

I believe Sheila E. comes from the Bay Area (Editor's note: She does.), as she noted her father and other family members taking up "half the audience." After "A Love Bizarre" she threw a drumstick into the crowd. But it actually landed in front of the first row, and a bunch of people scrambled to grab it. One lady must have taken a spill in the process, and didn't even get the stick. So Sheila came out from her drums and gave the lady a drumstick. That was pretty nice. She also gave more drumsticks out during and after "Glamorous Life." Mark Rivera was indeed a marvel to watch at this show, as he provided backing vocals throughout, and also played guitar, keyboards, bass, and various "blowing" instruments as well.

Overall, another surprisingly strong show and lineup. The '97 band is still my favorite lineup. You can't beat that lineup of songs and musicians. But Ringo continues to amaze not only with his newer lineups that seem rather eclectic or weak on paper but come out great, but continuing to improve with his vocals and drumming on the tours. The guy is 63 years old now and he seems to get younger every tour.

This band was slightly weaker than the 2001 lineup in terms of the song selection, but I think was slightly better in terms of backing musicianship, especially on Ringo's songs, and was much better on group vocals.

SETLIST:
1. It Don't Come Easy
2. Honey Don't
3. Memphis In Your Mind
4. How Long (Paul Carrack)
5. Land Down Under (Colin Hay)
6. Isn't It Time (John Waite)
7. A Love Bizarre (Sheila E.)
8. Boys
9. Overkill (Hay)
10. Act Naturally
11. You're Sixteen
12. Yellow Submarine
13. Here Comes The Sun (Full Band w/ Ringo Off Stage)
14. Never Without You
15. Don't Pass Me By
16. No No Song
17. Tempted (Carrack)
18. When I See You Smile (Waite)
19. The Glamorous Life (Sheila E.)
20. I Wanna Be Your Man
21. Living Years (Carrack)
22. Missing You (Waite)
23. Who Can It Be Now (Hay)
24. Photograph
25. Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go
26. With A Little Help From My Friends

-- HeyJude's "Beach Boys Resource Page" - http://www.geocities.com/heyjude160