By Tim Richards
Ringo: Peace & Love exhibition at The Grammy Museum.Credit: Tim richards
He's so very pink. The drummer is often the least flashy member of a band, but you couldn't say that about Ringo Starr on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There he is, sandwiched between John and Paul in the most lurid pink uniform you could ever imagine.
And the suit really is that colour, I discover, as I gaze in wonder into its case at Los Angeles' Grammy Museum (grammymuseum.org). No Photoshop tricks back in those days, apparently, just honest over-the-top day-glo colour.
The uniform is one of many items in Ringo: Peace & Love. It's the first time the institution has staged a major exhibition devoted to a drummer, and the former Beatles member has provided oodles of personal items for this moment in the sun. Near the pink uniform is an amazing green pinstriped suit worn in the promotional video for Hey Jude; a poncho from the band's Magical Mystery Tour movie; a black and white sweater worn in the film Help!; and a splendid violet tunic with floral brocade and a label reading "Under all this, I'm me".
Ringo's drum set.Credit: Rebecca Sapp/WireImage
Seeing these weird outfits en masse is exciting, a reminder of the tumultuous social shifts under way in the 1960s.
Not that the exhibition is a serious survey of societal change. It's very much a personal story of a Liverpool boy made good, often aided by luck. I get the feeling Ringo realises his good fortune, when I see some of the documents he's supplied from his early years.
Most delightful is the postcard the then Richard Starkey sent his mum from Hamburg, West Germany in 1961, saying "On any mail put Ringo Starr". And there's a big dose of "what might have been" in the 1962 telegram from musician Roy Young asking Ringo to join his band, a moment too late - Ringo had just been signed by the Beatles. There's consolation and encouragement for us all in this, I think, the realisation that you have to make the most of what fate hands you.
Though a long-held urban myth holds that Ringo wasn't a good drummer, the exhibition's notation disagrees, stressing his invaluable "skilful tight beats" as part of the Beatles' sound. With the band's music playing non-stop as I move between the exhibits, it's hard to disagree.
There's a section devoted to Starr's post-Beatles career, including an interactive table playing clips from his solo career. It includes footage of him in the shiny spacesuit he wore on the cover of his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna, and the suit is on display as well.
A highlight is the set of interactive drums equipped with video screens, from which Ringo gives visitors a quick drumming lesson.
I have a bit of a bash, but it's nowhere near as much fun as the booth labelled "Sing Yellow Submarine with Ringo Starr". It's basically a karaoke set-up, playing the most famous Beatles number sung by the drummer.
Visitors are invited by a clip of the musician to sing along and, as I'm currently the only person in the booth, I do. Belting it out, I like to think of my rendition as a personal tribute to a legendary band of my childhood.
Yes Ringo, I would like to join you in your yellow-hued submersible. As long as you're not wearing that fuschia suit.
Ringo: Peace & Love runs to April 27 at the Grammy Museum, 800 W Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles. Adult entry $US12.95, see grammymuseum.org.
The writer travelled courtesy of Fiji Airways and the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board.
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