Ringo Starr embraces and transcends time and nostalgia at rousing San Diego concert
The numbers increasingly add up for Ringo Starr, whose sold-out Friday night San Diego performance at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay was the second date on the 2026 spring tour by this two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and his six-man All-Starr Band.
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Their 21-song repertoire ranged from “Matchbox,” the Carl Perkins-penned 1956 rockabilly rave-up that opened the evening, to the concert-closing double-punch of The Beatles’ 1967 classic, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” and the sing-along chorus of John Lennon’s sadly still-timely 1969 anti-war anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.”
In between came an array of favorites from the songbooks of Starr and The Beatles, including “It Don’t Come Easy” and “I Wanna Be Your Man,” plus hits by Toto, Average White Band and Men At Work. Three of those bands’ key members — Toto guitarist-vocalist Steve Lukather, former Average White Bands bassist/singer Hamish Stewart and Men At Work singer-guitarist Colin Hay — are All-Starr Band veterans. Each clearly relishes still sharing the stage with a rock legend who, improbably, is now 85-going-on-just-17.
Starr was featured on drums or vocals (and sometimes both simultaneously) on all but one selection in the 103-minute concert. Still as boyishly slim as Mick Jagger, three years his junior, he was consistently compelling whether singing center stage or drumming in unison with Gregg Bissonette.
Source: sandiegouniontribune.com/George Varga
