Send me a postcard, drop me a line

I don't normally post news, but I thought this was just too cute!


Love letters from Ringo Starr to a teenage girlfriend sold today for £16,250.

Doreen Speight met the future Beatles drummer on a Butlin’s holiday in Pwllheli, North Wales, in 1961, when she was 16 and he was with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

Ringo wrote to her later in October 1962: “I got a phone call asking me would I join the Beatles and I said yes and I left Rory.

“I am doing very well with the new group, we have a record out I hope you have herd (sic) it it is on (Radio) Luxembourg every night (also don’t forget to buy it).”

Doreen, of Bredbury, Stockport, rediscovered the letters in a drawer. They were sold at a Bonhams auction in London to an anonymous UK collector.

“He was known as Richard Starkey back then and we ended up spending the whole week together, having barbecues and beach parties after they had practised.

“We would sit in Rory’s car and Ringo would hold my hand and buy us non-alcoholic drinks, he was a real gentleman. When we left he told me to write to him.”

Five out of a dozen letters have survived and each begins with ‘Dear Doreen’, with three sent from 10 Admiral Grove in Liverpool, where Starr grew up.

In most of the messages he enclosed photographs of himself and signs off with ‘Lots of love and luck, Ringo x x x’.

A Bonhams spokeswoman said: “We are extremely pleased with the result. The Ringo Starr letters obviously captured the hearts of many as competitive bidding pushed the price to more than double the estimate.”


(source)

Almeria

(original source)

With Maureen and Cynthia Lennon, watching John Lennon film scenes of How I Won The War in Almeria, Spain, October 1966.

Snap Crackle Pop

Beatle-bits

Beatle-bits

Ringo continually bites his lips, drums his fingers; Paul takes great pride in his Beatle-cut is forever combing his hair; Long John Lennon has waist-line worries, often pats his stomach to see if it's getting smaller; George is an inveterate guitar plucker, strums, picks and tunes his instrument every spare minute.

Roland Kirk is one of Beatles' favourite artistes. Roland - a blind, American modern jazzman - plays three instruments at one time. Beatles saw him last September at a London jazz club which they frequent...

In the beginning when the Beatles practised at John's house, John's aunt made them do their rehearsing standing outside on the porch.

John once bought a £40 leather jacket and proceeded to bash it about in order to get it creased and worn looking so that it would be more "with it."

All four Beatles smoke king-size filter-tip ciggies - Ringo at 20 a day the heaviest smoker. In common with most Liverpool pop-toppers, they drink an occasional whiskey and coke - Hamburg's favourite drink.

The Beatles often refer to road-manager Neil Aspinal as Nell.

John very seldom eats a proper meal. "I consider eating just a waste of time," he says. "So is sleeping. To my mind, the ideal scene would be to have pills to satisfy your hunger and pills to keep you fresh."

The Beatles played at George's brother's wedding five years ago.

Ringo's dad is a painter with Liverpool Corporation. His mum used to be a barmaid, but doesn't have to work now.

Some Beatles' fan has taken the iron foot scraper from John's old home in Menlove Avenue. Some souvenir!

Even when Ringo was working as an apprentice fitter he used to make rings from nuts and scrap metal - but his work-mates called him "Ritchie" - "Ringo" was to come later.

Girls

A lot of my scans are more about The Beatles as a whole rather than Ringo specifically, but I'll post them anyway because I figure as long as he's in the article then it's relevant. Unfortunately I don't have page one of this article, but it's nice enough on it's own I think. I scanned the entire page, tattered edges and all, because personally I like it when these things show their age.


Pop snobs make George mad

..."Now that's the type I go for," said Ringo. "The ordinary, girl-next-door type."
"Wished she lived next door to me," said George.
Ringo went on: "I'm not interested in marrying anyone in show business. When I marry - and I reckon I'll be about 30 when I do - I want her to be a girl who doesn't know what this business is like."
"She'll have a shock coming to her," said Paul.
"I don't mean that I'd want her to be ignorant of the sort of life I lead," Ringo added quickly. "It's just that when I go home at night I don't want to talk about package deals, guarantees, capacities, concessions or anything else to do with being a Beatle."

The it was George Harrison's turn. "I'm mad about small blondes," he said. "I don't mind admitting it. Why not? It's not a crime to like girls, is it? Just because I'm a Beatle doesn't mean I can't have tastes in girls. I don't pretend to be brainy or anything like that. And I wouldn't want a girl who was so clever that I wouldn't know what she was talking about most of the time. I'd go mad with a girl who hated pop music and was forever saying that the classics are best. That's a sort of snobbishness I really can't stand. On the other hand I don't want to be stuck with a girl who's really soft and unintelligent."

John Lennon flicked the ash off his cigar (a new fad). "I married the kind of girl I like," he said. "That may sound soft, but it's true. I always knew the type I wanted to marry. "A lot of these so-called marriage experts reckon that opposites attract. I don't know about that, but I do know that in some ways Cynthia and I are poles apart. For instance, I am an extrovert. I like being on show, having people look at me. Cynthia doesn't. She hates being in the public eye. She's an introvert. And she'd much rather be at home looking after the baby than going all over the place with me. I don't like girls who wear too much make-up. Cynthia doesn't. I like good cooks. Cynthia is one - you should taste her apple crumble. And I like girls with an interest in art, painting and other forms of cultural expression. Cynthia often discusses these things with me."

Our limousine swung into a back entrance of the TV studio where about 50 girls were hopefully waiting the arrival of the Beatles. They screamed as the car approached. The Beatles ducked hurriedly to avoid being seen and the screams changed to groans of disappointment as the girls saw me, apparently the only passenger.
"Thanks, pal," said Ringo. "We don't often get away with that trick. All too often they catch us and do their best to tear us to pieces. Sometimes it's a wonder we aren't put off of girls for good. But where would we be without them?"

Adelaide

BEATLES' SHOW STOPPED AS FANS RIOT
Express Staff Reporter: Adelaide, Friday
The Beatles' first concert in Australia ended in a near riot at Adelaide's Centennial Hall tonight when police had to stop the show as weeping, hysterical teenage girls started to storm the stage.

They welcomed us like liberators - George Harrison.
Ridiculous, wonderful, fantastic, and so on. We've had massive receptions all over the world, but never one like this. In numbers and spontaneous warmth it exceeds anything we ever dreamed of. A unique feature of the crowd was its gaiety. I've seen films of de Gaulle re-entering Paris after the recapture of France and the Allies marching up to Italy. Without wanting to draw comparisons, the expressions on the faces today were similar to the faces of people freed from captivity. The Australians are magnificent Beatle fans, and the great thing is that each State is a separate unit - which means that when Ringo rejoins us in Melbourne tomorrow the whole thing should happen again. This is the most exciting week of my life and we're all very proud.

Two dozen police formed a wall in front of the stage and after battling for several minutes managed to check the frenzied fans. It happened as the second of two sessions drew to a close. As the Beatles started their third encore - "Twist and Shout" - frenzied girls clambered over chairs and scrambled towards the stage.

Earlier a shrieking crowd of 25,000 broke through barriers and formed a screaming, waving mob round the Beatles' car when they arrived by air from Sydney. Two girls were trampled underfoot, and a 60-year-old woman collapsed as yelling teenagers surged round the car on it's way to the town hall. Police horses began to kick out in fear, and police beating teenagers off had to use their elbows and shoulders to clear a circle round one of the trampled girls as she screamed on the ground. Tears streamed down the faces of black-stockinged girls, and one of them ran round in circles screaming: "Beatles, Beatles - they're here."

Nearly 100,000 people are estimated to have lined the 10-mile route from the airport to the city. John Lennon took photographs of the crowd from the town hall balcony. More than 200 girls at the grammar school staged a 45-minute sit-down strike in the school yard because they were not allowed to listen to a broadcast of the arrival.

• Ringo Starr, recovered from illness, flew from London yesterday to join the rest of the group in Melbourne. He forgot his passport, but was allowed to go anyway. "A Beatle's a Beatle the world over," an airline official conceded.

The Jive Hive

Ringo's days as a Teddy boy are among my favourites and I love seeing pictures of him with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They always looked like they were having the time of their lives, I'll bet they were fantastic to see! Especially Rory himself (Alan Caldwell) is reported to have been a phenomenal performer. I reckon I'd of been such a fangirl of theirs and gone to every show I could!

These photos are from when they played at The Jive Hive (St. Luke’s Church Hall in Crosby, Liverpool) in 1961.

All Together Now

These pictures are from Melbourne, Australia when Ringo was reunited with The Beatles on 14th June 1964 after his stay in hospital. I've always felt sorry for Jimmie Nicol who stepped in for Ringo, it must be pretty rough to be so in the centre of it all but with the knowledge people aren't there for you. He flew home the next day with zero fanfare, and didn't even get to say goodbye to the Beatles as they were asleep when he left. He later stated: "Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning £30 or £40 a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too."


I have so many clippings from this period in 1964 regarding the Australian tour and Ringo's hospitalisation that I had hoped to post on the 50th anniversary of the events, but unfortunately times run away from me and I didn't get to post them on time. These things are always interesting though, so no matter, they will be posted eventually!