RINGO IN HIS LATEST TRIP TO LAS VEGAS

Ringo finds VegasVille a groovy place and has proven such during his frequent tour stops with his All-Starr Band. Over the past two-plus decades, Starr has performed in a variety of showrooms and theaters across the city.

He’s played the old Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, Mandalay Bay Beach and even a modified ballroom at the Rio a dozen years ago. Ringo is back on Sunday night for his second swing through Pearl at the Palms in the past 18 months.

He recently spoke for a few minutes over the phone, talking again of the idea of performing an extended run in the city and the much-anticipated update to Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” at the Mirage to coincide with the show’s 10th anniversary next year.

We start cold, with Ringo showing his easy humor at the beginning of the call:

Hi, Ringo — let me put you on speaker so I can free up my hands, OK?

That’s fine, but I don’t know what you’re going to be doing with them.

(Laughs) Nice one.

Thanks!

I don’t know if you’d remember this, but the last time I talked with you was at the book-release event for “Photograph,” and I asked you about playing a residency in Las Vegas. You called the show “The Golden Drums.”

Yes! “The Golden Drums,” great!

That’s it, that’s what you said you’d call it, like the “Red Piano” show Elton John did. What ever came of that idea?

It has been mentioned to me that, you know, a few hotels were interested in talking to me about doing a residency there, but right now I am still on tour. I still love to tour, moving around, playing different places, seeing the world.

It ends with this All-Starr Band (at the Pearl), and then we’ll rethink what it would mean to be in Las Vegas. It’s not like I’m saying I’m coming to Las Vegas for sure, but it has been offered. I’ll see how I feel after I finish this tour.

Any reason why you are finishing the tour in Las Vegas? You finished your last tour here, too.

No, they seem to like to book me there, and I just arrive. I say OK to whatever the schedule says, but I do like the room there a lot. It’s great, actually.

It’s smaller than many of the venues you’ve played with this band, isn’t it?

Yeah, I’ve played to 9,000, 6,000, 2,000 … it’s all mixed. I like that about touring. So, when you think about a residency, seriously think about it, what would it be? It would have to be big. You can’t just come out with a big gold drum, and that’s it. We’ve got the songs, sure, but you need production behind it.

Everyone who has played a residency in Las Vegas brings something more than just a concert show.

It has to be more than that. If we decide to do it, we have to think next of what is the production.

I’ve seen you in, I think, a half-dozen venues, just in Las Vegas. You’ve played here for years. What’s your opinion of the city as an entertainment destination having played everywhere in your career?

It is the greatest entertainment destination in America. Everybody goes to Las Vegas. The audiences change every week or even every three days. Sure, you’ve got people living there and working there, but most of the audiences, I think, plan their trips to Las Vegas around who is playing. It’s one of those places.

The attitude is let’s have fun. The atmosphere is always great there, except for the front row, because those are the people who get the free tickets.

Hey, I’ve been in the front row and tried to fire people up.

(Laughs) Great. I keep saying, “Put those people 10 rows back and put the fans up front.” They don’t seem to be able to do that.

You played the old Circus Maximus at Caesars Palace when you first started playing Las Vegas with the All-Star Band. Have the audiences changed since then?

You know, yeah, it was a proper room with tables and banquets and people sitting around. … A lot of people were just sitting around, like an old guy with 10 hookers who wasn’t really interested in the show. It has certainly changed since those days, and that was 25 or 30 years ago, you know.

I talked to Giles Martin when he was in town last fall, and there’s going to be a refreshing of the “Love” show at the Mirage. He’ll be remaking the music for the 10th anniversary of the show. How much you are going to be involved in that process?

I think we’ll be involved like last time. Giles will do his stuff — and actually last time it was Giles and George Martin working on the music — he will do the mixing. The actual music is not going to change. It’s how they pull it together. You might find a bass line in the second take of a song that’s better, or maybe not better but different, and there will be a small amount of remixing besides the remastering of the music. We’ll see what Giles does.

But you will be involved in the final decisions about what is used in the show?

Yeah, and you know, it’s a ways off. We’ll start talking about it when they get their process together. Then Paul (McCartney) and I will talk to them, and they’ll play for us what they think they want to do. … We are always involved, and if it’s a Beatles song and it’s got drums on it, you have to talk to me (laughs). If you take the drums off, you don’t have to talk to me.

Well, I have appreciated you taking the time to talk to me, and we’ll see you in Las Vegas.

Yeah — but not in the front row (laughs).

Hey, I’ll sit wherever you want me to. I’ll fire ’em up.