Ringo Starr
page 18
Ringo Starr is the quiet one. He sits at his drums like some Buddhist idol and wears a worried frown more often than a smile. Once in a while he lets a smile shatter his melancholy. "I'm not really miserable," he says, "it's my face."
Ringo, whose real name is Richard Starkey, got his new first name because of his passion for wearing lots of rings, sometimes as many as six at the same time - all gifts from admiring fans.
He's the most recent addition to the group, and at 23, also the oldest member. But age and tenure don't seem to matter much with the fans, and Ringo is just as popular as his three partners.
Although Ringo has been involved in the Beatle-mad movement for over a year, he is still amazed at the impact the group has. "Suddenly," he says, "we're international figures. Everybody wants to investigate us. Get inside us. Try to understand what makes a Beatle tick. They send big writers down to talk to us - wriers who say they want to talk to us about our 'sociological significance.'
"In Birmingham, there were dozens of policemen controlling screaming fans at the studio doors while we rehearsed a television program. Well, if they didn't scream, I guess I wouldn't be where I am today. But don't ask me to explain it."
At home ("I daren't tell you where home is because it would be surrounded by shock troops who've gone Beatle-mad and I wouldn't like to embarrass my parents"), when he manages to find time to spend a few days there, Ringo stays indoors. "I've got records to listen to - everything from rhythm and blues to country and western style - and fan mail to answer."
Ringo tries to take his mind off the fans and the pressure with a variety of hobbies. "At the moment my great kick is science fiction. I read lots of science fiction. But I tell you this. There's been nothing so fantastic in science fiction as the monster impact the group has made.
"It isn't the screaming fans that affect me. That's normal. You get used to it. I lvoe 'em and it's great to know they love you. It's a feeling that I might let them down."
"None of us has quite grapsed what it's all about yet. It's washing over our heads like some huge tidal wave. But we're young. Youth is on our side. And it's youth that matters right now. I don't care about politics or anything - just people."
But all the fan mail and adulation heaped upon him hasn't changed his attitude at all. He shares the same likes and dislikes of his fellow Beatles. "I'm not interested in living it up. All the money is invested, I don't even know how much it is. I don't take much out - just for clothes, a few cigarettes."
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