Ringo’s revolving line-up of well-known buddies decamp to the famed Los Angeles concert hall for yet another exercise in awkward nostalgia. This is the 10th version of the All Starr Band, our master of ceremonies aided by, among others, Edgar Winter, Hamish Stuart (Average White Band) and Colin Hay (Men At Work).
Almost inevitably, though, the calibre of the backing band tends to cruelly expose their leaders’ shortcomings. Ringo is on auto-pilot throughout, his voice flatter than ever, and only really sounds connected to the music on Photograph or The Beatles’ What Goes On (“the only song ever written by Starkey, Lennon & McCartney,” he reminds us).
Elsewhere, the famous friends are relied upon to lift the spirits; Billy Squier’s guitar work is exemplary, seemingly living out his own Carl Perkins fantasies, while Colin Hay threatens to steal the show with a sparkling rendition of Who Can It Be Now. It might be Ringo’s name on the ticket, but he’s curiously surplus to requirements on the best bits.
