Think back – what were you doing at noon yesterday? Chances are it didn’t involve shouting “peace and love” into the sky at the behest of a rubbish old man.
Which is a shame, because that’s what Ringo Starr wanted to happen. Yesterday, you see, was Ringo Starr‘s 68th birthday, and he wanted to use the occasion to initiate an annual Peace And Love Day, where at the stroke of noon everyone would stop what they were doing and… yeah, you get the idea.
As you’ve probably noticed, Ringo Starr’s Peace And Love Day pretty much fell flat on its arse without question, causing Ringo Starr to scale down his plans a little. Next year Ringo Starr will initiate a Nurse, I Think I’ve Just Wet Myself Again day where, at the stroke of noon, Ringo Starr and Ringo Starr alone will shout that very phrase at one of his care workers. For the fifteenth time that day.
It’d be quite easy to feel sorry for Ringo Starr if he didn’t seem like such a git, wouldn’t it? All the other Beatles are just streaking past him in terms of legacy. Paul McCartney is an award-winning classical composer, John Lennon will be remembered forever thanks to the giant tower of light beamed into space in his name – but Ringo? He’s the man who got his head chopped off because not even people from Liverpool like him very much.
But we should at least credit Ringo Starr with having the wherewithal to try and correct that. Yesterday was Ringo Starr’s 68th birthday and, modest man that he is, Ringo didn’t ask for material gifts from his fans.
Instead Ringo requested something far more humble – that every man, woman and child on the face of God’s green Earth raised their mouths to the sky at the stroke of noon and shouted “Peace and Love!” as loudly as possibly no matter what they were doing, so that subconsciously they’d think about Ringo Starr, remember he has an album out, go and buy the album and give Ringo the royalties needed to buy all the material gifts for himself that he’s clearly too modest to ask for. The Chicago Tribune reports:
“It’s a fantasy, and it’s a dream I have,” Starr said Monday, “that one minute, one day, one month, one year, everyone will go peace and love.” … He got it Monday from about 300 fans who lined an entire city block to sing “Happy Birthday” to the ex-Beatles drummer and flash peace signs in the air. “What a great birthday gift!” said Starr, surrounded by television cameras. “If you could pan around, you could see Chicago is full of peace and lovers.”
Well, one city block was full of about 300 peace and lovers, which works out at about 1/10,000th of Chicago’s population. Multiply that by all the cities in America and all the countries in the world and, well, it’s not exactly impressive, is it?
But then again, getting everyone to shout “Peace and Love!” into the air probably isn’t the best way to actually accomplish peace and love, is it? If you could achieve anything you wanted by shouting it out loud then Konnie Huq would be sitting on our knee right now and we’d have a proper job.
Let’s just hope that Ringo Starr’s stupid idea passes quickly and this silly game of Beatle one-upmanship can be put to bed. Honestly, first John Lennon wants a Peace Day, then Ringo Starr wants a Peace And Love day. The only logical conclusion to this sort of madness is Paul McCartney requesting a Peace And Love And Snuggles day, and we can all agree that’s just a step too bloody far.
No. Ringo Starr, the only thing you’ll be remembered for is this. It’s no more than you deserve.