It is 2012 and
Ringo is on tour with his All Starr Band. Seeing Ringo in concert was on
Jazmin's bucket list. The only Canadian date was in a casino in Niagara, where Jazmin is not allowed because she is a minor. So we selected the closest US venue, the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York state, 560 km from home.
We drove down on Friday and checked in at a hotel in Monticello, which is 15 km from Bethel Woods.
On Saturday we showed up at the Center before 4 PM (gates opened at 6:30 PM and concert started at 8:00 PM). We visited the gift shop, bought a couple of souvenirs and went across the hall to get an ice cream and a drink. That's when Jazmin noticed that Ringo and his band members were entering the gift shop! So we went back in after them.
Ringo was there for a few minutes, picked up four "Peace Love & Music" T-Shirts ("one of each" colour), paid for them at the cash, and went out to be carried away in a golf cart.
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| Ringo at the T-shirt rack |
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| Leaving in the golf cart |
He was really nice with everybody in the store, posing for photos and making jokes. He is a bit shorter and thinner than I imagined and
looks very fit and younger than his age.
After he left we went back in for our ice cream and drinks, we were very excited and couldn't believe our luck (got there way early for a reason I guess :-). That's when we started talking with other people that had also seen him, and a guy named John walks by saying he had snapped a few good pictures of Ringo. Suddenly John says "This is you in this picture with Ringo!" as he recognized me! Turns out Jazmin and Viole are also in that picture. I can't thank him enough for capturing that special moment for us and for emailing me his pictures.
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| Jazmin, Viole and Fabio behind Ringo (photo John Harris) |
Later I went back in the store and bough one of the T-shirts Ringo chose for me, in blue (my favourite colour).
We then went for a walk to visit the site of the original Woodstock festival in '69.
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| Monument commemorating Woodstock '69 festival |
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| Behind us is the site of the original Woodstock '69 festival |
During the concert Ringo mentioned that he had visited the gift shop and people there were very surprised. Indeed!
The concert was fantastic, the band amazing, lots of hits as a group! My favourite was Greg Rolle, who played keyboard in Santana's Abraxas album, and sang Black Magic Woman at Woodstock in '69 (and again Saturday). Ringo was in great shape, played drums and keyboard, sang and danced. Overall a fantastic experience.
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| Jazmin waiting for the concert to start |
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| Thousands of people, many more of them in the lawn space around the pavilion |
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| Ringo and his All Starr Band on stage (photo John Harris) |
I would say Jazmin can now scratch seeing Ringo from her bucket list :-)
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| Here I am wearing the T-shirt Ringo chose for me :-) |
