Ringo Starr’s ‘Worst Gig’ of His Life Included Death Threats and Sharpshooters
Ringo Starr landed the best gig of his career in the early 1960s when he joined The Beatles. The self-deprecating Ringo once said he knew he was no good as a drummer (he was wrong), but he didn’t pull any punches after a disastrous show in Montreal. Ringo called it the worst gig of his life, and it was so bad it ruined the city for The Beatles.
Ringo Starr and The Beatles were busy in 1964
The Fab Four built their reputation and fan base by playing live. The band performed several residencies in Hamburg, Germany, in 1961 and 1962, and they crisscrossed England when they weren’t playing Deutschland.
The rigorous schedule didn’t change when The Beatles added Ringo to the lineup in August 1962. The only difference was they had a hall-of-fame drummer keeping the beat. A year-and-a-half later, in early February 1964, The Beatles got their lucky break on The Ed Sullivan Show. Less than six months after that, the Fab Four played shows in Asia and Australia before returning to North America.
The Beatles’ concerts in Montreal on Sept. 8, 1964, went so poorly that Ringo called it the worst gig of his life, and the band never returned to Quebec, Canada.
Ringo said he had ‘the worst gig’ of his life after receiving death threats before a Beatles’ concert in Montreal
The Beatles toured the world during their heyday, but they only spent about 10 hours in Montreal in 1964 and never returned.
The Fab Four played two shows in Montreal — a matinee and a late show. Ringo said the concerts were “the worst gig of my life,” writes Michael Seth Starr (no relation) in the Ringo biography With a Little Help.
Starr writes that French-Canadian separatists called in death threats aimed at Ringo, claiming he was Jewish (he isn’t). Sharpshooters lined the arena in case anything happened. A plainclothes police officer stood near the drum riser. “If someone in the audience has a pop at me, what is this guy going to do? Is he going to catch the bullet?” Ringo quipped in The Beatles Anthology (per the Montreal Gazette).
“Ringo and his bandmates were used to the threats. It came with the territory, but this one was different with its sinister overtones,” the biographer Starr writes. “Once The Beatles took the stage in Montreal, Ringo — up on his drum riser — purposely turned his cymbals outward toward the audience for whatever little protection that afforded him.”
Beatles manager Brian Epstein ranted about the “f—— Canadians,” reports the Gazette. Once the late show and Ringo’s worst gig ended, The Beatles rushed to the airport, took off for Florida around 11:45 p.m., and they never returned to Montreal.
The Fab Four stopped touring, but Ringo later returned to Montreal
The Beatles stopped touring altogether less than two years after Ringo’s worst gig, which might have suited the drummer. The screaming fans drove him crazy since he couldn’t hear what he or his bandmates were playing. Still, the poor experience didn’t sour him on Montreal.
He never persuaded George Harrison to join an All-Starr Band, but Ringo has put together several iterations of his touring groups. Ringo played in Montreal in late September 2022 before two successive coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnoses led to him canceling his tour.
Ringo had the worst gig of his life when The Beatles played Montreal. It seems he put that experience behind him while touring with his All-Starr Band.
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