Ringo Starr celebrated his 72nd birthday in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday night (7 July) by holding a "peace and love" moment at midday.
Hundreds of fans joined Starr at Hard Rock Café, holding two fingers in the air and shouting "peace and love". The Beatles drummer also asked people around the world to do the same thing at 12 o'clock in their own time zones. He told his fans:
Weird list, I think. Two terrific albums from Preservation’s Circa offshoot, though. The mystery record that’s been intriguing so many of you , by the way, is going to be announced in about ten days. So I guess maybe one more week of prickteasing after this…
What to make of this, then? It’s a little late to expect everything Jack White records to sound like “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, of course. But still, even after the richness of the last Raconteurs album, “Another Way To Die” comes as something of a big, glossy shock.
It’s the moment half way through the set when she arrives, with a swish of the curtain, on stage astride a giant silver skull, wearing a flowing red trouser suit and cap, that we realise we just aren’t in Kansas any more, Toto.
This gig is being recorded for BBC Four and, as with this kind of thing, there’s something slightly odd about tonight’s proceedings. We’re in the splendid hall of a restored 18th century church, sitting around tables, mindful of the cameras and lengths of cables snaking across the floor, practising clapping for the Assistant Stage Manager. If “live” is a spontaneous celebration of the power of rock’n’roll, then we’re a long way from Kansas, Toto.
It is, arguably, a somewhat incongruous environment to see Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds play, anyway.
