Zak Starkey (born 13 September 1965) is an English rock drummer. He is the son of the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Starr’s first wife, Maureen Starkey Tigrett. He is also well known for his unofficial membership in the English rock band, The Who, with whom he has performed and recorded since 1996. He is the third drummer to have appeared with English rock band Oasis as well. Starkey has worked with other musicians and bands such as: Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, The Icicle Works, The Waterboys, ASAP, and The Lightning Seeds.
At age eight, Starkey became interested in music. At age ten, he began teaching himself to play the drums. His father gave him only one lesson but afterward discouraged his son’s growing interest hoping instead not to see him in the same business as his father. Although Starr has praised his son’s abilities he is said to have stated that he had always regarded Starkey as a future lawyer or doctor. The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, was one of Ringo Starr’s closest friends and Starkey’s godfather, and although they “never sat together at a drum kit”, Moon discussed drumming with Starkey and gave Starkey his first professional drum kit which later sold at Sotheby’s for 12,000 pounds. By the age of twelve, Starkey was already performing in pubs and was later a member of a garage band called the Next.
In the 1990s, Starkey who was now an accomplished drummer, joined two members of the Who, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle on a tour entitled: Daltrey Sings Townshend. This tour developed from a two-night performance at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Daltrey’s fiftieth birthday. In 1996 Starkey then left his band Face to work with The Who on their Quadrophenia tour. He received good reviews in this role and was praised by the music press for a strong drumming presence without trying to emulate the band’s previous drummer, Keith Moon. Both Townshend and Daltrey stated that they felt Starkey was the best match for the band since the death of Keith Moon.
Starkey was not available to record “Endless Wire” (2006) with The Who as he was on the road with Oasis at the time. He was available for the subsequent tour in support of the album however, The Who Tour 2006-2007. Pete Townshend’s official web site declared that Starkey was invited to become a full member of The Who after this tour stating that “Some of you may have noticed in one of my recent diary postings that I welcomed Zak into the Who as a permanent member. This is something he doesn’t feel he needs or wants. Let’s just say that the door is always open to this amazing musician and whenever we can, we will always try to make it possible for Zak to work with the Who in the future.” Starkey declined the invitation from Townshend, however.
On 7 February 2010, Starkey appeared with The Who during the half time show of Super Bowl XLIV. On 30 March 2010, Starkey played withThe Who during their performance of Quadraphenia at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Starkey performed “With A Little Help From My Friends” and “Give Peace a Chance” with his father and numerous guest stars (Yoko Ono, Nils Lofgren, Little Steven, Jeff Lynne) on 7 July 2010, at Ringo Starr’s 70th birthday party held at Radio City Music Hall. He also made several guest appearances for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. On 12 August 2012, he played with The Who at the finale of the closing ceremony for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games.
John Charles Julian Lennon (born 8 April 1963) is a British musician, songwriter, actor, and photographer. He is the son of the late John Lennon and Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Powell. Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, was his godfather. He has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon. Lennon was named after his paternal grandmother, Julia.
Julian Lennon was born in Liverpool. Initially, the fact that John Lennon was married and had a child was concealed from the public in keeping with the conventional wisdom of the era that female teenage fans would not be as enamored of married male pop stars.
When he was five, Lennon’s parents divorced following his father’s infidelity with Yoko Ono. Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” to console him over the divorce. Originally called “Hey Jules”, McCartney changed the name because he thought “Jude” was an easier name to sing. Lennon had almost no contact with his father after the divorce until the early 1970s, when at the instigation of his father’s then girlfriend, May Pang, Julian began to see his father more regularly. John bought his son a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a drum machine for Christmas in 1973 and encouraged his interest in music by showing him some chords. He made his musical debut at age 11 on his father’s album “Walls and Bridges” playing drums on “Ya-Ya” and later saying, “Dad, had I known you were going to put it on the album, I would’ve played much better!”
Following his father’s murder, Lennon voiced anger and resentment toward him, saying, “I’ve never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me. There was some very negative stuff talked about me…Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going, and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.
He was not included in John Lennon’s will, and was annoyed that he had to buy mementos of his father at auctions. A settlement was eventually reached wherein Julian was given “a large but undisclosed sum”. By 2009 Lennon’s feelings toward his father had mellowed. Recalling his renewed relationship with his father in the mid-1970s, he said, “Dad and I got on a great deal better then. We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear — they were the happiest time I can remember with them.” Lennon has been quoted as having a “cordial” relationship with Ono while getting along very well with her son, his half-brother, Sean, even spending time together on Sean’s tour in 2007.
In commemoration of John Lennon’s 70th Birthday and as a statement for peace, 9 October 2010 saw Julian, alongside his mother Cynthia, unveil the John Lennon Peace Monument in his home town, Liverpool, England.
Julian directly inspired three Beatles songs: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, “Hey Jude”, and “Good Night”. He is also devoted to philanthropic endeavors, most notably his own White Feather Foundation and the Whaledreamers Organization, both of which promote the co-existence of all species and the health and well-being of the Earth. He remains good friends with his father’s band mate, Paul McCartney. Julian Lennon’s sixth studio album “Everything Changes” was released on 3 October 2011.
Sean Lennon, the only child to the late John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, was born in New York City on October 9, 1975, his father’s 35th birthday. Julian Lennon is his half-brother and Kyoko Chan Cox is his half-sister. After Sean’s birth, John became a house husband, doting on his young son until his murder in 1980. Sean attended kindergarten in Tokyo and was also educated at the exclusive private boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland and earlier at New York’s private Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Dalton School. He later attended Columbia University, though for only three semesters before dropping out to focus on his music career.
His parents did not force him into the life of a musician. They intentionally hid their musical lives from their son. His debut into the music world came at the age of five, reciting a story on his mother’s 1981 album, “Season of Glass”. From childhood into his teen years, Sean continued to collaborate with his mother, contributing vocals and receiving production credit on her solo albums: “It’s Alright (I See Rainbows)”, “Starpeace”, and “Onobox”.
At 16, Sean co-wrote the song “All I Ever Wanted” with Lenny Kravitz for his 1991 album “Mama Said”. By 1995 Sean had formed the band IMA (with Sam Koppelman andTimo Ellis) to play alongside his mother on her album “Rising”. Sean also made appearances in film, featured in the cast of Michael Jackson’s 1988 “Moonwalker”, and portraying a teenager experiencing visions of various M.C. Escher paintings in Sony’s 1990 promotional short-film “Infinite Escher”.
James Louis McCartney (born 12 September 1977) is a British musician and songwriter living in London. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney and the late Linda McCartney. He spent the first two-and-a-half years of his life on the road while his parents toured with their band Wings. After the band broke up in 1980, the McCartney family settled in Rye, East Sussex, England where he attended the local state secondary school. He has stated his earliest inspiration to learn guitar was Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. As a result, he began playing music when his father gave him a Fender Stratocaster at age nine. The guitar had previously been owned by Carl Perkins.
In 1989 McCartney with his older sisters Mary and Stella again joined Paul and Linda on a world tour. He continued his education with a tutor while on the road. In 1993, at age 16, while surfing with friends, he was swept out to sea. Coast Guard was called, and his family rushed to the site, but he emerged safe on his own forty minutes later.
On 17 April 1998, in Tucson, Arizona, James along with his father and sisters was at his mother’s side when she died from breast cancer, which had been diagnosed in 1995. Later that year, McCartney graduated from Bexhill College near his home in East Sussex, where he pursued studies in A Level Art and sculpture.
James has contributed to a number of solo albums by his parents including “Flaming Pie”, “Driving Rain”, and “Wide Prairie”. His first solo EP “Available Light” was released in September 2010 to positive reviews. A second EP “Close at Hand” was released shortly after. The solo album The Complete EP Collection was released in November 2011.
Dhani Harrison (born 1 August 1978) is an English musician and the son of the Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison and Olivia Harrison. Harrison debuted as a professional musician when completing his father’s final album “Brainwashed” after George Harrison’s death in November 2001. Harrison formed his own band, thenewno2, in 2006.
Harrison’s first name is pronounced similarly to the name Danny but with an aspirated ‘d’. He is named after the 6th and 7th notes of the Indian music scale, ‘dha’ and ‘ni’. ‘Dhani’ is also a raga in north Indian classical music.
Harrison grew up with his parents in Henley-on-Thames in Friar Park, South Oxfordshire, England, the estate on which his father had lived since 1970. One of Harrison’s earliest memories, from the age of six, is receiving a drumming lesson from his father’s friend and bandmate, “Uncle” Ringo Starr. He recalled that before the lesson, he had been an avid drummer. However, when Starr began to play, the loud noise frightened him so much that he ran out of the room screaming and never used his drum kit again.
Like his father, Dhani Harrison showed a keen interest in Formula One auto racing. He accompanied George to Grand Prix races around the world.
Harrison attended Badgemore Primary school in Henley-on-Thames, then Dolphin School, a Montessori method school. He later attended Shiplake College where he showed a keen interest in rowing. Harrison is an alumnus of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where he studied physics and industrial design. After graduating from Brown in 2001, Harrison pursued a career as an aerodynamicist; however, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional musician.
In 2009, it was announced that Harrison was collaborating in the development of “The Beatles: Rock Band” music video game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii gaming platforms. Dhani Harrison was instrumental in the creation of the game and urged McCartney and Starr to participate. When asked about the game production Dhani stated, “I took the project to Apple and sort of convinced everybody to have a presentation. My job description is being enthusiastic. We’ve been working on it for the past two years. This is the first one that is going to be totally, historically accurate. It’s been a real headache, but it’s been the most enjoyable work I’ve done in my life.”
Harrison told the Chicago Tribune in an interview that he is “working on ‘Rock Band 3’ and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game”.
