Ringo, pointing at himself…

I sat at my computer, my hand poised on the mouse, ready to pounce once 10 a.m. came around. It was an early spring morning, and I was going to get the best seats I could possibly find for Ringo, coming to Victoria for the first time on October 8, 2015.

My husband and I had seen Ringo and His All Starr Band in Vancouver a couple of years earlier and had really enjoyed the current incarnation of artists, so we decided that we had to bring our grown daughters this time around.

The clock struck 10 (okay, digital clocks don’t actually “strike” any more but who can resist the drama?) and my fingers started clicking away. Wow! I managed to snag four 2nd row seats! I couldn’t believe I was going to be that close to a real Beatle!

When we saw Paul McCartney a few years back in Vancouver, we were so far back from the stage that when we could actually see him, he looked about as big as an ant. If it hadn’t been for the giant video screens, we’d have barely known it was him. It was a great concert, though, and we wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

October 8 rolled around and the four of us lined up to get into the arena. I couldn’t help but notice all of the grey heads in line and I’m sure my daughters were wondering what kind of a night this was going to be. We all opened our purses to be inspected by security, had our tickets scanned, and wandered inside. And while my husband and one daughter lined up to by t-shirts, my other daughter and I decided to find our seats.

We were sitting pretty close, yep.

One lady, probably a few years older than me, sauntered along the first row and found her seat right in front of me. “I can’t believe I’m in the first row!” she turned around to exclaim. We laughed and chatted a bit as the arena began to fill. I turned around to see all of the grey hairs behind us. There was the odd younger person here and there, but the place was mostly filled with boomers. Some of them still had long hair like me, stuck in the 70’s, others had succumbed somewhat to the 21st century.

And then the band wandered out on stage and the lights went down and the crowd screamed and applauded in delight. It really was an all star band, with Steve Lukather from Toto, Gregg Rolie from Santana and Journey, Richard Page from Mr. Mister, and the wackiest of them all Todd Rundgren. One guy behind us yelled at Todd every time he took centre stage, but that was about as rowdy as things got. And then out came Ringo.

I knew I was going to regret not wearing ear plugs, being so close to the band, but at that point I didn’t care. I was sitting there only a few yards away from a guy who was once a member of arguably the biggest, most famous band in the world. Nothing beats that!

And then the songs rolled out, one after the other, all very familiar to me and to my husband, not so to my daughters, but they enjoyed it anyway. “Roseanna”, “Evil Ways”, “Broken Wings” “Bang The Drum All Day”, “It Don’t Come Easy”, “Photograph”, so many wonderful old songs.  My daughter marvelled at how well-behaved the audience was 🙂

I just sat there and smiled, sometimes standing and dancing in place, sometimes flashing peace signs back at Ringo. He does that. A lot.

And then it happened. Maybe three quarters through the show when Ringo was in front singing one of his songs, he turned to face our direction and he pointed his finger right at me. I just sat there and smiled back. Did that really happen? I felt like a stupid teenager…was he really looking at me? Was I seeing things? I sat there for the longest time trying to digest it. Wow. Okay, let’s put it in perspective. I mean, the guy is 75. And I’m…well. I’m a few years younger.

It was a great concert and we’re happy to say that our daughters were able to at least see half of the Beatles, including the Paul McCartney concert.

On the way home I told my husband about Ringo pointing right at me. “Yeah, sure he did!” “No, I swear he really pointed at me!” I was a little miffed that my husband didn’t believe me. The next day when my daughter and I were reminiscing about the show, she brought up the pointing incident. “Did he really point at me?” I asked. “Yes, I saw him pointing straight at you. Well, you were wearing pink, Mom, the rest of us in the row had dark clothes. Pink top, long, blonde hair…no wonder he saw you!” I laughed happily. Okay, I wasn’t just imagining things.

Good thing we were just far enough away that he couldn’t see the wrinkles.