99 - Ringo Starr & The Beatles with Tom Doyle

99 - Ringo Starr & The Beatles with Tom Doyle

Author: Rock n Roll Book Club January 17, 2026 Duration: 1:17:40

Our starting point is the breakup of The Beatles as writer Tom Doyle joins us to talk through the life of Ringo Starr, his biography is out now.


His debut album Sentimental Journey arrives in March of 1970 & is quickly followed up with Beaucoup of Blues, a set of country standards. 


Ringo has also began to build an acting career with The Magic Christian alongside Peter Sellars. An appearance in Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels follows. 


He appears on not only George Harrison’s blockbuster All Things Must Pass but also John Lennon’s Imagine album. 


Meanwhile he unexpectedly initially becomes the most successful of the solo Beatles, scoring a number of hits including It Don’t Come Easy, I’m The Greatest & Photograph (with the latter becoming the first Beatle to score a number 1 single). 


You’re Sixteen also becomes a number 1 & his third album Ringo becomes his commercial peak with all 3 other Beatles appearing. 


Ringo goes on to feature in the hit film That’ll Be The Day along with some not so successful releases including Son Of Dracula with Harry Nilsson & taking the lead in Caveman. 


The 70’s see Ringo as one of the ‘Hollywood Vampires’ alongside Alice Cooper, Micky Dolenz, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson & Keith Moon. 


Moving into the 1980s & Ringo unexpectedly becomes a hit on children’s television as the voice of Thomas The Tank Engine (or Shining Time Station to American viewers). 


The 90s see Ringo mostly out on the road with his All Starr Band but will be remembered by Beatles fans for the Anthology reunion project & the comeback single Free As a Bird. 


Ringo is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 & continues to perform to this day. 



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Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell



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The Music Maps Podcast from the Rock n Roll Book Club isn't your typical music show. It's an audio expedition where geography is the guide. Every episode starts with a specific location-a city, a venue, a forgotten roadside attraction-and uses that place as a launchpad to explore the sounds, stories, and scenes connected to it. You might find yourself deep in the blues clubs of Chicago one week and tracing the underground punk threads of a small European town the next. The conversations are wide-ranging, connecting the dots between iconic artists and obscure movements, all anchored to a point on the map. Listening to this podcast feels like adding a new, richly detailed pin to a global atlas of musical influence. It’s about the context behind the chords and the cultural soil from which genres grow. The result is a continuously evolving, deeply human portrait of how music and place are inextricably linked, one fascinating destination at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Music Maps Podcast
Podcast Episodes
93 - The Beach Boys with Peter Doggett (Hawthorne, California) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:44
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92 - Pamela Des Barres [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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90 - Ride with Steve Queralt (Oxford) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:29
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89 - Live 8 with Paul Vallely [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:56
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88 - R.E.M. Twin Tone Records, Big Star & more with Peter Jesperson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:07
We are joined by Peter Jesperson as he tells us about his time spent with R.E.M. & his role in Twin Tone Records in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St.Paul. We also squeeze in a couple of stories about his time around Ale…
87 - The Wild Swans with Paul Simpson (Liverpool) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:53
This week we get to talk about one of the best music books of recent years Revolutionary Spirit by Paul Simpson. Paul was born in Liverpool but grew up in Lancashire alongside future members of Echo & the Bunnymen - Les…
86 - Donovan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:34
It is truly a pleasure to welcome Donovan to Music Maps - a true legend of the 60s. His book The Hurdy Gurdy Man is available on Penguin.We start with his early life in Glasgow in the 1950s & the family relocate to Hatfi…
85 - The Everly Brothers with Barry Mazor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:43
This week we travel back to the 1950's & 60's to hear all about one of the most influential acts of all time The Everly Brothers with biographer Barry Mazor. Don & Phil's Dad Ike was a musician & the brothers are already…