Concert Review: Ringo Starr Kicks Off 2025 Tour with His All Starr Band in Connecticut, Plays “No No Song” for the First Time in Over 20 Years
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band kicked off their 2025 tour Thursday, June 12, on a beautifully balmy night in Bridgeport Connecticut, at the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater. The show was the famed Beatles drummer’s first gig with the All Starrs since the January 2025 release of his new country album, Look Up, and his first performance since some special Nashville events lined around the time of the record’s arrival.
Starr has said in numerous interviews that he doesn’t like playing his new music in concert, because he feels the audience will tune out if it isn’t one of his familiar songs. Ringo apparently has decided to make an exception for the new trek, because he performed the title track to Look Up in the middle of the Bridgeport show. This marked the first time Starr sang “Look Up” live with the All Starrs. He did perform the tune previously in January at the two special star-studded concerts at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville that celebrated the album’s release.
The All Starr Band’s 2025 lineup is the same as it was last year. The group’s main members are Men at Work frontman Colin Hay, Average White Band guitarist/bassist Hamish Stuart, and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather. Rounding out the band are drummer Greg Bissonette, sax/flute/harmonica player Warren Ham, and keyboardist Buck Johnson.
While the majority of the set was the same as the one Ringo and company played their 2024 tour, there were a few noteworthy changes.
2025 Additions to the Ringo and His All Starr Band’s Set
The Bridgeport concert kicked off with a version of “Honey Don’t,” the classic 1956 Carl Perkins rockabilly tune that The Beatles recorded in 1964 with Starr on vocals. According to Setlist.fm, this marked the first time Ringo and the All Starrs performed the tune since 2015.
In perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening, about hallway through the concert, Starr dusted off his old hit “No No Song.” Ringo hadn’t performed the tongue-in-cheek tune with the All Starr Band since 2003. “No No Song,” which was co-written by Hoyt Axton and David Jackson, appeared on Starr’s 1974 album, Goodnight Vienna. The single reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Another new addition to Ringo and company’s 2025 set was “Act Naturally,” which the group last played in 2023. That song, which was a chart-topping country hit for Buck Owens, was covered by The Beatles in 1965 with Starr singing. Ringo told the crowd before the performance that he and Owens actually later recorded a duet version of “Act Naturally.”
Other Highlights from Ringo
As usual, the Ringo and the All Starrs’ Bridgeport show featured a variety of Starr’s other solo gems and hits and Beatles tunes that he sung. They included “It Don’t Come Easy,” the Shirelles cover “Boys,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Yellow Submarine,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Photograph.”
Ringo split his time between singing at the front of the stage and behind the drum kit. Starr, who turns 85 on July 7, continues to be surprisingly spry, at one point doing jumping jacks as he urged the crowd to clap along.
The show included inspired renditions of Toto’s “Rosanna,” “Africa,” and “Hold the Line”; Men at Work’s “Down Under,” “Overkill,” and “Who Can It Be Now?”; and Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces” and “Cut the Cake.”
Ham, who also is a touring member of Toto, is one of the All Starr Band’s secret weapons. Besides playing multiple instruments, he belted the high vocal parts to “Rosanna,” “Hold the Line,” and a number of other tunes during the concert.
The Concert’s Finale
Bringing the concert to a close, Ringo and the All Starrs got the crowd singing along to The Beatles’ classic 1967 tune “With a Little Help from My Friends.” After Starr bid the crowd good night, and “peace and love,” of course, the band ended the show with a bit of John Lennon’s classic anthem “Give Peace a Chance.”
Ringo and the All Starr Band’s Other 2025 Tour Plans
Ringo and his All Starr Band’s 2025 tour continues with a concert on Friday, June 13, at the historic Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The current leg of the trek is plotted out through a June 27 performance in Omaha, Nebraska.
Starr and company also have second leg scheduled. That runs from a September 10 show in Chicago through a September 27 performance in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas gig is part of a six-date residency at the Venetian Theatre. Starr’s other Vegas concerts are scheduled for September 17, 19, 20, 24, and 26.
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Set List, Bridgeport, CT, Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, 9/20/24:
- “Honey Don’t” (Carl Perkins cover)
- “It Don’t Come Easy” (Ringo Starr)
- “Rosanna” (Toto)
- “Pick Up the Pieces” (Average White Band)
- “Down Under” (Men at Work)
- “Boys” (The Shirelles cover)
- “I’m the Greatest” (Ringo Starr)
- “Yellow Submarine” (The Beatles)
- “Cut the Cake” (Average White Band)
- “Octopus’s Garden” (The Beatles)
- “No No Song” (Ringo Starr)
- “Look Up” (Ringo Starr)
- “Overkill” (Men at Work)
- “Africa” (Toto)
- “Work to Do” (The Isley Brothers cover)
- “I Wanna Be Your Man” (The Beatles)
- “Who Can It Be Now?” (Men at Work)
- “Hold the Line” (Toto)
- “Photograph” (Ringo Starr)
- “Act Naturally” (Johnny Russell cover)
- “With a Little Help from My Friends”/“Give Peace a Chance” (The Beatles/John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band cover)
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