Ringo Starr

Richard Starkey spent much of his childhood in hospitals, life-threatening illnesses stealing years that might have been spent drumming. He found skiffle as a teenager, co-founded the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group in 1957, and by 1960 was playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes when three lads from another Liverpool group came calling. He joined the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best, and spent the next eight years anchoring the sound - singing "Yellow Submarine", writing "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and laying down what he considered his finest work on "Rain". When it ended, he didn't retreat: "It Don't Come Easy", "Photograph", and "You're Sixteen" all hit number one, and his 1973 album Ringo cracked the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic. He narrated Thomas the Tank Engine, acted in films, and since 1989 has led sixteen iterations of his All-Starr Band across the globe. In 2018, the boy from the Dingle became Sir Richard Starkey.