Even for those who do not know much about the Beatles, the names John Lennon and Paul McCartney may ring a bell and stand out the most amongst all The Beatles. Many do not know much about the other two band members of the fab four, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Toonari Post have explored ten things to know about the quiet Beatle George, and will here focus on the drummer of the band, Ringo Starr.

1. He was in two bands before he joined The Beatles.

Ringo started his own group in 1957 with his friend Eddie Miles called the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. In 1959, he joined the Raving Texans. By October 1960, the band was renamed Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and while they were performing in Hamburg, Starr met The Beatles.

2. His real name is Richard Starkey.

During his time with the Raving Texans, Richard adopted the stage name “Ringo Starr” because of the rings he wore and because it sounded “cowboyish,” and his drum solos were billed as “Starr Time.”

3. He wasn’t the original drummer for The Beatles.

After meeting The Beatles in 1960 in Germany, Starr sat in for Pete Best as The Beatles’ drummer on 18 August 1961 and 5 February 1962. The Beatles removed Best as their drummer on 16 August 1962, after Best had played in the early recording sessions at EMI Studios. Starr then became the band’s drummer and his first performance as a full Beatle was on 18 August 1962 at a Horticultural Society dance at Port Sunlight. Best’s removal from The Beatles didn’t sit well with Best’s fans. The following day, after Starr’s appearance at the Cavern Club performance as a full Beatle, they were upset at Best’s removal. They held vigils outside Best’s house and fought at the club, shouting ‘Pete forever! Ringo never!’ George Harrison received a black eye from one of the fans.

4. He was the oldest member to join the band.

Ringo was born July 7, 1940. John was the second oldest as he was born October 9, 1940 while Paul was born June 18, 1942 and George-the youngest of the fab four-was born February 25, 1943.

5. He was the first Beatle to actually leave the group.

It was in 1968 during the infamous White Album sessions. During the two week period in which Starr was gone, the remaining band members all took turns on the drums for some of the tracks. When he returned he found his drum kit covered in flowers.

6. Ringo was born left-handed.

He became ambidextrous because his grandmother thought it was a witch spell for people to be left handed and therefore he was forced to write with his right hand.

7. Starr didn’t play the drums on The Beatles’s single “Love Me Do.”

On September 11, 1962, during the band’s second recording session with Starr as a member, producer George Martin replaced Starr (who was inexperienced with playing in the studio) with session drummer Andy White to record takes for what would be the two sides of The Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do” backed with “P.S. I Love You”. Instead of the drums, Starr played tambourine on “Love Me Do” and maracas on “P.S. I Love You” for this session.

8. Of all the band members, Ringo was the most consistent during recording sessions.

That’s according to English author and historian Mark Lewisohn, who is regarded as the world’s leading authority on The Beatles. In his detailed study of The Beatles’ recording sessions, Lewisohn confirmed that Starr was both proficient and remarkably reliable and consistent. According to Lewisohn, there were fewer than a dozen occasions in the band’s eight-year recording career where session “breakdowns” were caused by Starr making a mistake, while the vast majority of takes were stopped owing to mistakes by the other three Beatles.

9. Starr is considered to have influenced various modern drumming techniques.

Techniques such as the matched grip started with Starr. The drummer holds drum sticks and mallets to play percussion instruments; in the matched grip each hand holds its stick in the same way. In the traditional grip, each hand holds the stick differently. Placing the drums on high risers for visibility as part of the band, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings are also Starr’s.

10. Many drummers cite Starr as an influence.

This includes: Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes, Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Jen Ledger of Skillet, Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, Danny Carey of Tool, Liberty DeVitto of Billy Joel’s band, Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden, Eric Carr of Kiss, Phil Rudd of AC/DC, Orri Páll Dýrason of Sigur Rós, the former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Pedro Andreu of Heroes del Silencio and many others.

Image Courtesy of  Mazzzur / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A. – Screenvision, in partnership with Ace Arts , and multiple-award winning music documentary producer Iambic Media, brings one of the music world’s true “lost treasures” to the big screen with the feature presentation of ”The Beatles: The Lost Concert.”

The new 92-minute documentary charts the birth and impact of Beatlemania in America and includes, in its entirety, their first-ever full U.S. concert performance from February 11, 1964 at D.C.’s Washington Coliseum, the only complete Beatles’ concert available to fans, one which has remained unseen by movie theater audiences across the nation for over 47 years. Rock superstar and American Idol judge Steven Tyler commented: ”This blows away every performance I’ve ever seen, including Elvis!”

The story of their historic arrival in America and the impact they had is revealed through new interviews with more than 20 Beatles’ associates, journalists, disc jockeys, concert attendees, historians and music luminaries and archival footage of the Fab Four.

The list includes Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry , rock pioneer Chuck Berry , super producer Mark Ronson , journalists Maureen Cleave , Larry Kane and Ed Rudy , concert promoter Sid Bernstein , Beatle George’s sister Louise Harrison , The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr . and Nick Valensi , chart-topping U.K. songstress Duffy, renown Beatles historian Bruce Spizer, and Mike Mitchell , whose recently unearthed photos of the event are seen throughout the movie.

On February 11, 1964, two days after their record shattering appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” The Beatles traveled by train through a snowstorm to Washington, D.C. to perform their first-ever concert before an American audience at The Washington Coliseum, before an overbooked audience of 8,092 screaming (mostly female) teenagers.

Their 12-song set that lasted a little over a half-hour and included both chart-topping originals like “She Loves You” and high-energy covers like “Twist and Shout.” Professionally filmed by an eight-camera crew and mixed live on location, the show was broadcast a month later via closed-circuit to movie theaters across America to two million teenagers.

The film of the concert was then lost and remained unseen in its entirety by audiences for over 47 years! The original master tapes have now been restored and re-mastered and the entire concert, the ONLY complete Beatles concert available to fans, is included in The Beatles: The Lost Concert.

Sure to rekindle the fires of Beatlemania for both the generation who lived it and the younger ones influenced by it, the event will be shown in movie theaters across the U.S. in a limited engagement onMay 17 and 22, 2012. In addition, a special World Premiere is scheduled at New York’s landmark Ziegfield Theater on May 6 with two showings. For information, including detailed history, movie trailer and tickets, go to www.lostbeatlesconcert.com .

The resonating impact of the Beatles’ in performance is illustrated in the raves given in interviews during the documentary. Commenting on them as musical competition for all who came in their wake, Mark Ronson , the producer behind hits from Amy Winehouse and Adele, adds: “You’re always going to be standing in the shadow of The Beatles.”

U.K. pop sensation Duffy calls them “the Holy Grail of music,” while Mike Mitchell , the young photographer who chronicled the show, adds: “The concert was like being in the delivery room at the birth of an entire generation.” Tommy Roe , one of their opening acts that evening may have put it best: “This is history!”

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Gracenote recently announced its technologies and music metadata help make it easier for Toyota drivers to enjoy and manage their digital music collection with Toyota Entune- enabled multimedia systems.

Entune, which in 2011 was given the “CNET Best of CES” award for Car Tech, is a revolutionary new multimedia system that lets Toyota drivers and passengers use voice and touch commands to connect to popular apps and interact with their music on mobile devices.

The Entune-enabled system in select 2012 model year Toyota vehicles features Gracenote licensed Album Cover Art, Playlist Plus and MediaVOCS technologies. When a driver’s iPod, smart phone or USB drive is connected inside the car, the Gracenote Playlist Plus technology jumps into action, identifying artist and album names to help drivers better navigate their music collection through the car audio system.

Gracenote Playlist Plus recognizes inconsistent and conflicting artist spellings in the collection, such as “AC-DC,” “AC/DC” or “AC.DC,” and uses this intelligence to improve music playlisting and voice control.

To help drivers hear more of the music they love, Gracenote Playlist Plus also associates detailed Genre information (e.g. Indie Rock, Punk, Classic R&B and Ska), Origin (e.g. U.S.—New York, England—London), Era (e.g. 1970, 1980s) with the driver’s music collection, letting them automatically create similar music playlists spanning multiple genres.

For instance, if a driver is listening to The Clash, they can simply say “Play More Like This” to hear similar artists and music from the band’s Genre (e.g. Classic Punk), Origin (England—London) and Era (1970s). Many voice recognition and text-to-speech systems struggle with irregular spellings and hard to pronounce artist and album names. Gracenote MediaVOCS technology enhances the accuracy of Toyota’s voice-recognition capabilities for music search.

For instance, Gracenote MediaVOCS helps the voice-recognition system understand “Depeche Mode” and “INXS” are the correct spellings and pronunciations of bands or artists. And drivers can use “Snoop,” “CCR,” “The Fab Four” and thousands of other artist nicknames as voice commands to access music.

“With digital music collections on smart phones and other connected devices now reaching into hundreds and even thousands of songs, it is critical to provide drivers a safe and easy way to interact with their music,” said Vadim Brenner, vice president of product at Gracenote. “The pairing of Gracenote’s technology and data intelligence with the innovative Entune multimedia system provides Toyota drivers a powerful in-car entertainment experience, where they can access and manage all of their music while keeping their attention on the road.”

The Gracenote Global Media Database, which provides the backbone for some of the world’s most popular entertainment products, is the largest and most comprehensive music database in the world featuring music and video metadata and licensed cover art images.

With 130 million tracks and eight million albums, the database processes more than 10 billion queries per month and powers a billion devices, including smart phones, PCs, automotive systems and HDTVs, from leading brands.

Philip Lange / Shutterstock.com

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