Ringo Starr walks off 'Regis and Kelly'

[HARD ROCK UNIVERSE]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ringo Starr is known for being the amiable Beatle, but the rock star showed his tough side Tuesday when he walked off the set of "Live With Regis and Kelly" rather than cut short one of his songs.

Starr, who is promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8," planned to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However, due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund, and the musical director, Starr didn't realize the performance had to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.

When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song's 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman said it had to be less than 3 minutes.

"We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay," Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Ringo left saying, 'God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.' "

A spokeswoman for "Regis and Kelly" told the AP the show's producers tried to work with Starr, noting his appearance had been booked since November and the time requirement for the song -- the show's standard -- had been expressed numerous times.

With Starr absent, fashion designer Michael Kors and the winners of CBS' "The Amazing Race" did extra segments to fill his time.

Starr, 67, shortened his song for CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," but it was still over 3 minutes, Freund said.

[Jesse]

Good for him! He should be able to play the whole damn song. Sounds like he made as many concessions as he could, but compromise, apparently, is not the the vocabulary of the Regis And Kelly producers.

[kim]

The guy shouldn't have been there in the first place in a performing
situation.
But...maybe Ringo, being who he is, needs to do what it takes to get the message out?

Anyone worth their salt though, should realize that they're simply gonna be wasting their time playing a crowd of "rushing around the house" family's getting ready for work, school and daycare while this cerebral stimulating hosted show is being piped into the typical North American domicile.

Give yer head a shake Ringo, it's one thing to come on a "breakfast" tv show to begin with in order to promote your recent work, but to expect to captivate an audience of this genre long enough to take your efforts seriously by actually performing, is sheer stupidity.

I wouldn't expect to see Plant, Page, Jones, or Bonham showing up to play a watered down version of Stairway To Heaven, just to have it cut short by Regis saying that they have to segue into a tampon, diaper or cereal commercial...??

If Ringo wants to promote himself as a more serious musician at this stage of the game, perhaps he should consider sliding over to the PBS stage and doing at least an hour long, uninterrupted, commercial free gig similar to what Orbison, Vaughan, Fogerty, Fleetwood Mac, or most recently, televised venue such as the New York Dolls did.

What were you thinking Starkey ole chap?

Thanks
Kim

[duojett71]

Give yer head a shake Ringo, it's one thing to come on a "breakfast" tv show to begin with in order to promote your recent work, but to expect to captivate an audience of this genre long enough to take your efforts seriously by actually performing, is sheer stupidity.

While I see your point to a small extent, their are millions of people who tune into this show every morning. By no means was it stupid to book an appearance on such a widely viewed and popular show. Ringo Starr puts an all star band together once every what 5, 6, 10 years and tours. He isn't exactly out there anymore. Until I saw him on the T.V. the other day in a commercial for a scheduled performance I didn't really know what he looked like at his current age. Haven't seen him in years. And even though Ringo isn't regarded as the most talented singer, drummer, or musician....he was one of the Fucking Beatles for for Christ's sake. The producers should have shown him more respect and I respect the hell out of him for sticking to his guns. I like you Ringo....always have.....(Elvis voice...).

[kim]

duojett71 said:

Give yer head a shake Ringo, it's one thing to come on a "breakfast" tv show to begin with in order to promote your recent work, but to expect to captivate an audience of this genre long enough to take your efforts seriously by actually performing, is sheer stupidity.

While I see your point to a small extent, their are millions of people who tune into this show every morning. By no means was it stupid to book an appearance on such a widely viewed and popular show. Ringo Starr puts an all star band together once every what 5, 6, 10 years and tours. He isn't exactly out there anymore. Until I saw him on the T.V. the other day in a commercial for a scheduled performance I didn't really know what he looked like at his current age. Haven't seen him in years. And even though Ringo isn't regarded as the most talented singer, drummer, or musician....he was one of the F*CKing Beatles for for Christ's sake. The producers should have shown him more respect and I respect the hell out of him for sticking to his guns. I like you Ringo....always have.....(Elvis voice...).

Right you are, good point Duojett

While my choice of terms may have been a tad harsh, "stupidity" to be specific, I'm still standing behind my point of view here.

Yeah, Regis & Kelly is one helluva program I'm sure, and most likely provide some thought provoking entertainment for the millions of people that tune into the time slot. Kudos to the 2 of them!

Not much else on tv these days other than reality shows and reruns anyway so it's most likely a hoot to catch a live recorded glimpse of an ex-Beatle, even if nobody knows what the man looks like at his age these days or for that matter, especially for the younger crowd that may not even know who he is?

However, I'm a big fan of Ringo as well. Goes back all the way to 1964 when I was a little bastard with shades of turds in my well worn pants and was allowed to catch a big part, if not the biggest part of the British Invasion musically, via the Ed Sullivan show.

Ringo was my favourite Beatle at the time and I recall playing drums on a little orange pail with a pair of my moms knitting needles...all the while, feeling the power and the groove of the music that the Fab 4 were offering up at the time.

Over the years, I never once gave up on the group, even though they called it a day back during the sad moment they collectively called it quits for good back in 1970. Still a huge fan and although I like all sorts of other music, The Beatles are #1 with me!

Following the efforts of their individual output over the years afterwards brought not only myself, but the rest of the world a ton of joy through their music. They all had their individual moments...some more than others.

Here's the kicker though, I too, have a lot of respect for the 2 remaining Beatles left on the planet and instead of using the term "stupidity", I find it "Appalling" to say the least that Ringo would be treated in this manner. I also find it discouraging and disheartening to see the man treated as such, similar to the way Regis & Kelly would treat someone of greater popularity these days such as the the "flavour of the day" (insert current artist here)______________________.

In my opinion, not only was Richard Starkey a Beatle by love or good luck, it's a moot point. The man plied his trade to the best of his abilities and was a contributor to arguably the greatest musical group that the 20th century had witnessed...PLUS!...he also had enough talent to come up with some pretty fine solo efforts after the demise of The Beatles.

So with that, I stand my ground and still believe that this was most likely not the best venue for Ringo to tout his forthcoming efforts.
Simply put, Regis and Kelly should focus more on the newer and up and coming acts, ones that have about the same amount of "legend status" as the two of them have combined, at this point.

Money talks however and I feel for Ringo if he believes that this is what he has to do in order to make his point.

For what it's worth, I'm glad he walked off as well. Shows a lot of class on his behalf in my opinion. For someone like myself that's been behind him though for the last 40 some odd years...just makes ya wonder...why'd you do it in the first place Ringo?..................

If this glossy broadcast had any sense of decency, they would have allowed the man "one more minute" to strut his stuff...because once this legend is gone...they'll be wondering why they didn't, and spend more time wishing that they had the chance to do so...however, it'll be too late......... surely, for everyones benefit, they could have given the guy ONE MORE LOUSY MINUTE of airtime... IT"S RINGO FOR F**K SAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As ridiculous as this sounds, if John Lennon were to come back for a day and was granted a 10 minute spot on Regis & Kelly, would they feel compelled to go to commercial break and ready themselves for the next guest before even 7 minutes were up??...

YEAHHHH...and they'd use the 3 remaining minutes and try to slip him in with Andy Rooney for his 3 minutes of a 60 Minute segment which runs about 40 minutes including commercials.

Thanks
Kim