Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band – Mann Center – Philadelphia (A PopEntertainment.com Concert Review)
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Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band – Mann Center – Philadelphia, PA – June 15, 2025
“Every one of you will know at least one song.” That was a promise that Ringo Starr made to the crowd at the Mann Center the other night. The show – which was rescheduled from last summer when Starr fell ill at the end of his previous tour around the country – was long-awaited and well worth the wait.
Of course, Starr was humble when suggesting that people would know at least one song being performed in the show. More likely they might not know as many as one or two songs… if that. (The most likely song for not to be known would be “Look Up,” the title track from Ringo’s 2025 country album.)
After all, Starr used to be a member of some band called The Beatles, and while he was not the best-known singer or writer in the group, he did sing lead on such classics as “Yellow Submarine,” “Octopus’s Garden” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.” And most people don’t remember that Starr was the former member to bolt out of the gates fastest as a solo artist when that band broke up, putting together several classic singles before his career returned to more earthbound levels.
Starr has been putting on his “All-Starr Band” tours periodically since 1989, and the idea behind them is as simple as it is genius – Starr’s band is made up of artists who are the leaders of formerly huge groups themselves. Therefore, beyond Starr’s music, his band members can perform their own hits as well. It’s like four concerts in one.
Dozens of classic rockers have been part of the All-Starr Band over the history of the tour. The current lineup – most of whom have been playing on Ringo’s tours for years – is made up of Steve Lukather (lead guitarist and vocalist from Toto), Colin Hay (lead vocalist of Men At Work), Hamish Stuart (Average White Band), drummer Gregg Bissonette, saxophonist Warren Ham (Kansas and Toto) and keyboardist Buck Johnson (Aerosmith). Beyond Ringo’s solo and Beatles tunes, Lukather, Hay and Stuart each performed three big hits from their own bands’ repertoires.
However, dressed dapperly in a red jacket and regularly flashing peace signs, Starr was the ringmaster at this particular magical musical circus. He looked and acted amazingly fit for a man of his age – Starr will be turning 85 in less than a month, but still has dark brown hair, even on his beard, and dances around like a man half his age. And he still knows his way around a drumkit.
Ringo opened things up with a fun rockabilly cover of Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t,” which Ringo sang for the Beatles on their 1964 album Beatles For Sale. He then moved right into his solo years, with a propulsive take on his nearly first American hit single “It Don’t Come Easy,” which Ringo had co-written with his former bandmate George Harrison.
Ringo left the center stage and got behind the drums as The All-Starr Band members took the spotlight for a bit. Steve Lukather did a fun version of his poppy Toto hit “Rosanna,” a song which was slightly roughed up by the group. Next Hamish Stuart took the spotlight, doing a swinging funk version of Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces.” Next to shine was Colin Hay, who did a surprisingly rocky version of Men At Work’s new wave classic “Down Under.”
By now, everyone was worked up and headed back into Ringo’s history, doing a fun version of “I’m the Greatest,” which was written for Ringo by John Lennon, and the Shirelles cover “Boys,” which the Beatles recorded on Please Please Me.
Then Lukather pulled out an acoustic guitar as Ringo said he would let Luke choose the next song. The guitarist teasingly plucked out the opening chords of “Day Tripper.” Ringo laughed and said they weren’t playing that song. Lukather then played the beginning of “Please Please Me.” Ringo stopped him again. “I won’t let him take charge again,” Ringo joked. “What we are going to do is one of my favorite songs ever, and it goes like this…,” Starr told the crowd as he launched into the jaunty nautical pop of “Yellow Submarine.”
The hits came fast and furious after that, with Ringo doing his own Beatles composition “Octopus’s Garden,” and Stuart doing AWB’s “Cut the Cake,” (which included a drum section that segued into snippets of several music classics, including “Thank U (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” done as a tribute to Sly Stone, who had died days earlier. The band crunched up both Toto’s “Africa” and Men At Work’s “Overkill,” making the songs’ quirky wonderful tunefulness, but rocking out to make them feel a bit harder.
The show climaxed with a slate of stone-cold classics, with Hay again rocking up his new wave classic, “Who Can It Be Now?” Then Lukather took us on the way back machine to “Hold the Line,” the most rocking track yet. Then Ringo returned to center stage to take us out with a smashing run of “Photograph,” Buck Owen’s “Act Naturally” and then arguably Ringo’s most iconic Beatles song, “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
It's nice to see that Ringo Starr still is getting by and getting high with a little help from his friends.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: June 17, 2025.
Photos by Jim Rinaldi © 2025. All rights reserved.
