''Liverpool 8'' is the fifteenth studio album by

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

, released worldwide on 14 January 2008. Received with mixed reviews, it marked Starr's return to

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

for the first time since leaving the label in 1975, following the end of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' recording contract with the company.

Background

''Liverpool 8'' was originally planned for release in June 2007, and began as another production by the collaborative team of Mark Hudson and Starr (the two had previously co-produced '' Vertical Man'', '' I Wanna Be Santa Claus'', ''

VH1 Storytellers ''Storytellers'' is a television music series produced by the VH1 network. In each episode, artists perform in front of a (mostly small and intimate) live audience, and tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories, somewhat ...

'', '' Ringo Rama'', and '' Choose Love''). However, the release date was pushed back to the beginning of 2008 when Hudson was replaced by Dave Stewart after a falling out with Starr. The album's production credits read, "Produced by Ringo Starr and Mark Hudson; Re-Produced by Ringo Starr and David Stewart." All of the songs but one were written with the Roundheads, although Stewart also has two co-writing credits. Starr's attorney Bruce Grakal told journalist Peter Palmiere that the partnership between Hudson and Starr was over and they would never work together again. This happened after Hudson dropped out of Starr's 2006 tour as musical director to do the television special '' The One: Making a Music Star''. According to Palmiere, Hudson claimed that the split was over Starr's insistence on using synthesized sounds, for which Stewart is known, whereas Hudson wanted real guitars, pianos, strings etc. However, concerning the parting of ways with Hudson, Starr commented, "The separation between Mark Hudson and myself was a question of trust and friendship and had nothing to do with synthesizers."

Release

''Liverpool 8'' was released worldwide by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. The title refers to the postal district of the

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Liverpool, Canning, Dingle, Liverpool, Dingle, and Edge Hill, Merseyside, Edge Hill ...

area of Liverpool in which Starr was born. The album was released on CD,

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

, and

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

Wristband. It was available as a free audio stream at ''www.vh1classic.com'' before its release date. The title track was released on CD and digital download as the first single from the album on 7 January 2008. ''Liverpool 8'' entered the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

at number 91, and reached a peak of number 94 in the US. The album sold 7,000 copies within the first week of release and as of January 2010, 31,000 copies have been sold. A few weeks later after the album release, readers of the ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'' were offered a non-album track called "It's Love", which was recorded during the sessions for ''Liverpool 8''.

Reception

''Liverpool 8'' has a 59 per cent "mixed or average" rating from

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' gave the album a positive review, calling it "full of nostalgia for the good ol' days".Liverpool 8
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Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

writes that "it's nothing too flashy and it has not one tune that calls attention to itself". In a particularly unfavourable review for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', Pete Paphides wrote that "it’s hard not to boggle at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

's susceptibility to flattery", and "Just because he albumwas fun to make, it doesn’t follow that you might enjoy listening to it."

Track listing

All tracks written by

, Mark Hudson, Gary Burr and Steve Dudas except where noted.

Personnel

Personnel per booklet. ;Musicians * Ringo Starr –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(1-12),

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

(1-12),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(1-7,9-11),

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

(1), claps (1),

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

(10) * Sean Hurley –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(1-2,4-7) * David A. Stewart –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

(1-5,12),

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

(1,3,12),

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(1-2,12), orchestra arrangement (1), backwards fabulousness (5),

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

(12) * Gary Burr –

(1-2,4-10,12), claps (1),

(2,4,7-8,10-11),

(4,8,12),

(6,9,12),

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

(8), keyboards (4,11),

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

(12) * Steve Dudas –

(1), claps (1),

(2-6,8,10-11),

(2,8-12),

classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...

(9),

(12) * Brent Carpenter – backing vocals, claps (1) * Mark Hudson –

(1-12), claps (1),

(3,9-12),

(3,5),

(3-4),

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(3,7), keyboards (3,5),

(4,8,11),

bongos Bongos (Spanish language, Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' ...

(6),

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

(6),

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

(11) * Bruce Sugar – backing vocals, claps (1) * Keith Allison – backing vocals, claps (1) * Suzie Katayama – orchestra arrangement, conductor (1,11) * Zac Rae – keyboards (2-5) * Dave Way – bass (3) * Jesse Davey – electric guitar (5), guitar solo (5) ;Production * Ringo Starr – producer * Mark Hudson – producer (except on "Liverpool 8") * David A. Stewart – producer on "Liverpool 8" * Mark Hudson – additional production * Ringo Starr, David A. Stewart – re-producers * Bruce Sugar –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Steve Dudas, Gary Burr, Ned Douglas – additional engineers * Bill Malina – mixing *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– mastering * Tom Recchion –

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

* Paul Moore – design *

Brian Griffin Brian Griffin is a fictional character from the American animated sitcom ''Family Guy''. He is one of the main characters of the series and a member of the Griffin family. Created, designed, and voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he is an anthrop ...

– photography

Charts

References

External links

*
The Official Ringo Starr Site
{{Authority control 2008 albums Ringo Starr albums Albums produced by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) Albums produced by Ringo Starr Albums produced by Mark Hudson (musician) Capitol Records albums