The Beatles Boxed Set (28 page)

            But
in 1962, Ringo Starr’s destiny was pointing to a very different direction, a
path that would eventually lead him to the Beatles and propel him to stardom.
He would be called the luckiest man in show business, for he became the
official drummer of the Beatles (replacing Pete Best), whose rise to fame would
be unequaled by other bands.

            Ringo
Starr was born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940, at 9 Madryn Street in Dingle,
Liverpool, England. His father, also named Richard, worked as a dock worker
before he worked in a bakery where he met Elsie (neé Gleave). Richard Starkey
Senior’s father was born with the surname “Parkin” but later on adopted his
stepfather’s surname, “Starkey.”

A Starr was born

            Elsie
and Richard endured an unhappy marriage for seven years that ended in divorce
in 1943 when their son was just three. But for the brief time that they were
together, the two Richards were known as Big Richie and Little Richie in the
neighborhood. Richie didn’t know why his father walked out on them but his
opinion of his father was so low that when Big Richie visited them, he wouldn’t
speak to him.

            Little
Richie recalled that “things were pretty tough for Elsie, as I’ve always called
my mother. She tried to bring me up decently. We were poor but never in rags. I
was her only child. She could spend more time with me.”

            Starkey
Senior’s departure from their lives made Elsie more resolved in providing her
son whatever her deprived situation would allow. Richie’s clothes might be
worn, but they were always clean. Elsie would tuck in his shirt, shine his
shoes and brush his hair before sending him off to a relative or friend who’d
look after him while she worked to provide for the two of them. Marie Maguire,
who was four years older than Richie, used to look after him and became the
closest thing to a sister that he’d ever known while his mother was busy with
menial jobs.

            When
Little Richie was three, he and his mother moved to a smaller home with lower rent
at 10 Admiral Glove.

Ringo and his beloved mother, Elsie

            Richie
spent his childhood in post-war austerity and had to rely on rationing that
lasted well into the fifties. A meal with chicken was considered an unlikely
luxury, and some items were so scarce that one had to save up ration coupons
for weeks to get them. A Mars Bar, for instance, was so expensive that it would
have to be divided between five slavering children.

            They
were also provided with third-pint bottles of lukewarm milk provided at morning
playtime at school. Like many other children, Richie hated the milk pudding
which was a part of each week’s menu.

            By
then, Richie was already attending St Silas’ Church of England Primary School.
He had already developed interests in music, films, and just about anything
that he thought was interesting. He liked Gene Autry “The Yodelling Cowboy” who
he described as “my first musical experience as a kid. I remember getting
shivers up my back when he sang
South of the Border
. He had three
Mexican guys behind him singing “Ay-yi-yi-yi…” and he had his guitar.”

            Then
there was
Ghost Riders in the Sky
, which Richie thought was more
exciting than any native music aired on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s
three national radio stations. He also had memories of
Git Along Little
Dogies
and
Polly Wolly Doodle
from the
Singing Together
pupils’ handbook distributed by the monitor during music lessons around the
upright piano.

            St
Silas was a five-minute walk from Admiral Glove. Passers-by would sometimes hear
multiplication tables chanted
en masse
from one of the classrooms. For
Richie, arithmetic was the most trying subject of all the “rubbish shoved into
you at school – all those figures.”

            But
Richie didn’t stay long at the school because of the first manifestation of the
digestive maladies that affected his life. Some people thought this was hereditary,
because like his father, he was nauseated by any food with a hint of onion or
garlic.

            One
day when he was six, “I felt an awful stab of pain. I remember sweating and
being frightened for a while.” Clutching his stomach, he was taken on an
ambulance to the Royal Children’s Infirmary. The initial diagnosis was a
ruptured appendix that soon led to an inflamed peritoneum. After the first
operation, there seemed to be no hope of survival for Richie as he lapsed into
a coma in the intensive care cubicle for two months.

            Elsie
was told several times that her son would not live but, to the doctors’
surprise, Richie came around and slowly began to recover. After six months,
Richie was on his way to complete recovery when another disaster struck. He
fell out of the bed, necessitating an additional six month of hospital stay.
And when he finally came home, he realized that he was very behind in his
school work. By then he could barely read or write, so Marie Maguire taught
him.

When Ringo was six, he fell into a coma
after an operation to treat his inflamed peritoneum; when he was 13, he was
hospitalized for two years to treat pleurisy

            Little
Richie wasn’t interested in school, and the fact that he was so far behind
strengthened his resolve. He always missed school, and his absenteeism
influenced his dismal showing on the Review exam. And since he didn’t pass the
Review, he lost interest in taking the Eleven Plus exam, which he was
ineligible to take at any rate. Thus, he wound up at Dinglevale Secondary
Modern School at age eleven where he showed an aptitude for art and drama and
other practical subjects such as mechanics.

            In
1953, Elsie married Harry Graves, whom Richie called his “step ladder.” It was
Harry who encouraged Little Richie’s interest in music. In that same year, Richie
developed chronic pleurisy, of which the complications resulted in another bout
of hospitalizations that lasted two years. When he left the hospital at age 15,
he was so sure that he wouldn’t be returning to school. He missed too much that
felt that he couldn’t catch up on the lessons. He left Dinglevale in 1955.

            His
health problems had other enduring effects in the form of allergies and sensitivities
to food.

            After
recuperating at home, it was time to think about finding a job. He found a job
as a messenger with the British Railroad but quit when he failed the medical
exam. He also found job as a barman on a boat that ferried between Liverpool and
Wales but was fired when he showed up one day drunk. When he was seventeen, he
was an apprentice joiner at Henry Hunt and Son’s engineering firm.

It
was about this time that the skiffle craze hit Liverpool. Skiffle, a type of
popular music using improvised instruments, became popular again in the United
Kingdom in the 1950s largely due to Lonnie Donegan. Donegan’s high tempo
version of Leadbelly’s
Rock Island Line
, which became a hit in 1956, and
the lack of a need for expensive instruments, was what set off the skiffle
craze in Britain.

            Richie
and Eddie Miles, another apprentice at H. Hunt and Son, formed the Eddie
Clayton skiffle group. Richie handled the percussive duties; they and other
employees would entertain the workers at lunch time. And after hours, the group
played at parties and local competitions.

Ringo and Eddie Miles formed their own
skiffle band named Eddie Clayton skiffle group

            In
December 1957, Richie had his first real set of drums which his stepfather
bought for him second-hand. It cost ten pounds and Harry had to carry it from
London to Liverpool by train. This set was eventually replaced with a new black
Premier kit.

            Richie
also joined the Darktown Skiffle group though it was not uncommon for him to
sit in with other bands. He played drums for Al Caldwell’s Texans in March 1959
and became officially a member of the band in November. By then the band was
calling themselves Rory Storm and the Hurricanes fronted by Alan Caldwell aka
Rory Storm.

Before
the Rory Storm and the Hurricanes name, Storm considered calling his group
Dracula & The Werewolves, but changed his mind and settled on Al Caldwell’s
Texans. Still known as Alan Caldwell, he opened The Morgue Skiffle Club in the
cellar of a large Victorian house where groups played on Tuesdays and Thursdays
for up to 100 people. Some of the groups that played at The Morgue were Storm’s
group, which he later called The Raving Texans, and the Quarrymen, which would
evolve into the Beatles.

            Richie
Starkey first met Storm at a talent contest called 6.5 Special where Richie
played with the Darktown Skiffle. Richie first played with Storm on March 25,
1959 at the Mardi Gras in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.

            The
name of the band changed to Al Storm and The Hurricanes, then Jeff Storm and
The Hurricanes, and finally to Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. The band
consisted of Storm, Ty Brian, Johnny Byrne, Lou Walters and Ringo Starr. The
band also participated in a concert called Search for Stars at the Liverpool
Empire Theatre on October 11, 1959, and won second place ahead of 150 acts.

            Finally,
the band’s lineup consisted of Storm (vocals), Byrne (rhythm guitar), Walters
(bass guitar/vocals), Ty O’Brien (lead guitar) and Richie Starkey (drums). The
band and their leader became known for their outlandish dress and exuberant
stage performance along with their music.