Ringo Starr featured on Soundstage

Ringo Starr will be featured in concert on a new episode of the PBS series Soundstage, which begun airing in the US on Thursday, August 25th. The show features Starr performing tunes from every era of his career, including his Beatles classics "Yellow Submarine" and "With A Little Help From My Friends," along with solo work like his 1973 Number One hit "Photograph" - which he cowrote with former Beatles bandmate George Harrison. The concert features a cameo by Starr's good friend, Men At Work frontman Colin Hay, who toured as part of Starr's last All-Starr Band. Hay performs Men At Work's two Number One hits, "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under." Check your local listings for stations and times in your area.

The special, which was done at the Genessee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois, was one of only a handful of small shows Starr and his group the Roundheads performed while promoting his latest CD titled Choose Love.

Unlike his All-Starr Band tours, where everyone gets some time in the spotlight, this PBS show is pretty much all about Starr and his music. But he told us that there are limits to how much new material he can play for an audience:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "To go out and do the whole CD, people would be asleep, so that, you know, when I go out, I've gotta do 'Little Help,' I do 'Photograph,' you know, I've got 'Back Off,' I've got -- you know, I have a long history of music, which I present to the audience every night. The fans come to hear, you know, what they love, and OK, you can get away with a couple of new tracks, but that's about all."

The Soundstage performance is expected on DVD later this year, though no release date has been announced.