Off The Beatle Track

I didn’t plan on making my retirement year all about The Beatles, but it turned out that way: in 2025, I saw both Ringo (for the first time) and Paul (for the sixth) in concert, and I visited Liverpool (also for the first time).

Ringo

We had tickets for Ringo’s 2024 Philadelphia show, but as we were preparing to leave the house we learned that it was cancelled (Ringo was ill). Fortunately, Ringo rescheduled for this year–Fathers’ Day, to be precise (which becomes interesting, but not that interesting, later in the story).

The 2025 edition of Ringo’s All-Starr Band consists of Steve Lukather (from Toto), Colin Hay (from Men at Work), Warren Ham (who’s played with Kansas and Toto), Hamish Stuart (from Average White Band and Paul’s touring band), Gregg Bissonette on drums, and Buck Johnson on keyboards. (Bissonette and Johnson have too many credits to list here, but I should include this Wikipedia nugget about Bissonnette: “From 1994 to 2004, he played on the musical interludes for every episode for the TV show Friends.”)

Ringo was unbelievably energetic*, Colin Hay still sounds terrific, and the crowd especially enjoyed the seven The Beatles’ songs (three of which were covers, including the opener, Honey Don’t). I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and although I’m not constitutionally opposed to the idea, I don’t think I need to see Ringo again. But I’m glad I saw him this year.

Liverpool

We left for Liverpool five days after the Ringo show. I’m not a religious or spiritual person, but it felt like a pilgrimage.

We toured John’s home on Menlove Avenue (Mendips) and Paul’s home on Forthlin Road, spent time with Pete Best’ nephew (and Neil Aspinall’s grandson) at the Casbah, visited Penny Lane and Strawberry Field, and walked around St. Peter’s Church, Woolton.** St. Peter’s is, of course, where John and Paul met in 1957, so I don’t understand why the church grounds aren’t overrun by more pilgrims.

On the outside wall of the church hall is affixed a plaque attesting to the site’s historical significance, a little higher than eye level.*** The inscription on the plaque ends, “As John recalled, ‘That was the day, the day that I met Paul, that it started moving.’”**** It was a bit like finding a plaque floating in a lonely corner of deep space that says, “This is where the Big Bang occurred 13.78 billion years ago, which is when stuff started to happen.”

Across the street from the church hall, in the cemetery, stands a gravestone for Eleanor Rigby. If we’d simply flown into Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport, visited St. Peter’s, and flown out, the trip would have been worthwhile.

Paul

We saw Paul on Veterans’ Day (so that’s two Beatle concerts on two U.S. holidays; now you understand why I said it wasn’t that interesting). I will continue to pay money to watch Paul McCartney perform for as long as he chooses to play live music.

Paul’s Got Back Tour setlist contains what I consider to be at least five tributes to John:

1. The opening song, Help!.
2. Here Today, the song he wrote about John after John’s murder.
3. Now and Then, the John demo that Paul, George, and Ringo finished and finally released in 2023.
4. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, John’s song from Sgt. Pepper (which Paul claims to have written with John, and the second song title in the set list to feature a exclamation point).
5. I’ve Got a Feeling, which Paul sings “with” John via Peter Jackson’s video wizardry.

Paul also dedicated Something to George. To the best of my recollection, both Ringo and Paul mentioned John and George during their concerts, but neither mentioned each other. Paul also shouted out George Martin.

And in the end

Beatlewise, I don’t expect 2026 to compare favorably to 2025. But here’s hoping. If the super deluxe editions of Help! and Rubber Soul are released, and if Paul releases box sets for London Town and Back to the Egg, and if I finally get to New York City to visit Strawberry Fields, who knows?

*He was 84 at the time, but turned 85 less than a month later.

**I should confess here that I don’t really understand whether Woolton is necessary; from what I can tell, Woolton is part of Liverpool but is more than just the unofficial name of a neighborhood. I mean no disrespect if I’m referring to the church or the town incorrectly; I’m just a confused Yank.

***Unless you’re taller than I am, which more than half of you should be, in which case it will be closer to your eyes than to mine.

*****I’ve taken the liberty of ameliorating some of the plaque’s punctuation.