Why Recording at Ringo Starr’s House Was Torture for Visiting Musicians
Ringo Starr grew up in a poor section of Liverpool and became an international star because of his drumming talent. Artistic honors and musical halls of fame inductions followed for The Beatles’ timekeeper. Ringo made the most obvious statement when he said his life was like a fairy tale. Yet recording at Ringo’s house was hardly a dream come true for visiting musicians.
Ringo Starr bought a house from John Lennon
Ringo’s London apartment was like a playground for his friends. Paul McCartney recorded music there. Jimi Hendrix rented it. John Lennon and Yoko Ono shot the cover art for Two Virgins there.
The Beatles’ drummer eventually moved out and became neighbors with John. Later, Ringo bought John’s house — named Tittenhurst Park — (and burned all his leftover possessions) after the Fab Four finally fractured, but he rarely stayed there. The timekeeper lived in Monaco, crashed with John in Los Angeles, and jetted around the globe in the 1970s.
When Ringo and his wife, Barbara Bach, decided to settle down at Tittenhurst, it made using the estate’s home studio torture for visiting bands.
Recording at Ringo’s house was torture for other musicians because of his protective dogs
John installed a home studio at Tittenhurst Park, which he dubbed Ascot Sound Studios. He recorded a large part of his Imagine album there. Ringo opened up the studio — which he named Startling Studios — to other artists when he bought the house, but recording there was torture for anyone else.
As he writes in Postcards From the Boys, Ringo’s dogs made life hell for anyone but him and his family:
“When I left the country for Monaco in 1976, I turned the house into a studio with accommodation for the bands. When Barbara and I came there in 1981, we had two German shepherds who didn’t like anybody except the family. When we returned, we’d hear screaming. The guitarists would want to go out and get some fresh air, and you’d hear barking and see a lot of musicians up trees. Those dogs would rip your clothes off.”
Ringo Starr
It makes sense that Ringo’s dogs chased everyone but his friends around the house. German shepherds are fiercely protective of their owners; anyone else is a threat and treated like one.
Visiting musicians recording at Ringo’s house — Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Whitesnake, and The Tourists (Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart’s pre-Eurythmics band) recorded music there in the early 1980s, per Discogs — brought new odors and strange smells to Tittenhurst. The aromas set off the dogs’ sensitive senses, and they reacted like typical German shepherds.
Imagine stepping out for a cigarette after laying down a track only to be greeted by a rapidly moving mass of muscle and teeth. Knowing they could be canine bait, it’s a wonder any musicians wanted to make music at Ringo’s home studio with the drummer’s dogs on the prowl. It must have been akin to torture.
The drummer had mixed luck with his houses
Fierce German shepherds protecting Ringo’s house and family was great for him and torture for visiting musicians. It was great or torturous depending on who the dogs favored.
But Ringo had some mixed luck with his homes over the years.
He was lucky to underbid John yet still purchase actor Peter Sellers’ estate. The drummer was the proud owner of a country mansion, but he and his wife lived like simple people there, according to one Beatles insider.
One positive of homeownership for the drummer was giving an award-winning musician his big break. He signed the brother of a contractor working on his house to an Apple Records contract in 1968. The tragically bad side of owning a home was when Ringo lost rare and cherished Beatles memorabilia in a 1970s house fire. He was unhurt, but several precious items disappeared forever.
Though his dogs made recording at Ringo Starr’s house sheer hell for visiting musicians, at least they never had to outrun a fire or pick up sledgehammers while at the drummer’s home.
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