Reproduced from Rolling Stone (USA) 25 August, 1988

"In London, legacies open doors," says Starr. "My philosophy has always been to be around people who love you." Starr's new audience has proved to be downright amorous. "We've become the darlings of the Hooray Henry set, what you in the states call yuppies," says Starr. "Sixties music, soul, Motown - it's all very trendy here." Although the resourceful Starr had ridden the disco wave with records like "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio" and "Contact," by 1982 he was without a label and was finding it increasingly hard to carve out of a living. In addition, Starr and his longtime manager, Lilian Kyle, found Motown less than forthcoming when it came to royalties. "Motown claimed there was still money owed to them from advances," says Kyle. "The last time he received a check was so many years ago I can't even tell you." When Starr's mother, who was, he says, "my absolute best friend and backbone," died in late 1983, he saw no reason to remain in the U.S.

Last year in England, Starr took part in the high-profile Ferry Aid project, recording a version of the Beatles' "Let It Be" with such British superstars as Boy George, Mark Knopfler and Kim Wilde top raise funds for victims of the disaster off the coast of Belgium. The charity project led to a recording contract with Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, the English production team. The resulting single, "Whatever Makes Our Love Grow," did well in several European countries, but it's high-tech sheen struck a sour note with Starr. "It sounded too much like Stock-Aitken-Waterman and not enough like Starr,' he says. During the brief spells that he isn't touring Europe with his band, Starr, who is single, lives in a fifteenth-century country manor outside Birmingham. He describes himself as "forty-six going on twenty-seven' and says he would like to perform again in America, but only on his own terms: "I don't want to do one of those oldie-but-goody shows. I'm too much today." - JEAN ROSENBLUTH