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Ringo‘s All Starr Band is a bit like the best wedding band in the world.

Formed in 1989 after a spell recovering from alcoholism, Ringo assembled a band that at various times included Jack Bruce, Dr. John, Dave Edmunds, John Entwistle, Peter Frampton, Levon Helm, Nils Lofgren, Billy Preston, Todd Rundgren, Zak Starkey and Joe Walsh. They tour regularly, performing a selection of Ringo’s own hits, some Beatles numbers and a few rock classics. This three disc set assembles all the live albums from all of the tours to date. If you were there you have to have it. If you weren’t… let’s just say that you’d have had a better time if you had been rather than just listening to the albums.

Obviously it’s good, well played and all, but it’s a bit like listening to a recording of a karaoke show. That might actually be Peter Frampton singing Show Me The Way or Gary Brooker on A Whiter Shade Of Pale or Ringo on Back Off Boogaloo. It might as well be your fat mate Des after his tenth pint though.

Allan McLachlan spent the late 70s studying politics at Strathclyde University and cut his teeth as a journalist in the west of Scotland on arts and culture magazines. He moved to London in the late 80s and started his life-long love affair with the metropolitan district as Music Editor on City Limits magazine. Following a brief period as News Editor on Sounds, he went freelance and then scored the high-profile gig of News Editor at NME. Quickly making his mark, he adopted the nom de plume Tommy Udo. He moved onto the NME's website, then Xfm online before his eventual longer-term tenure on Metal Hammer and associated magazines. He wrote biographies of Nine Inch Nails and Charles Manson. A devotee of Asian cinema, Tommy was an expert on 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and co-wrote an English language biography on the Japanese actor and director. He died in 2019.