Ringo and the Rev
Song to be sung roughly to the tune of Octopus’ Garden
It’s strange but true
In Rodborough Avenue
A big car arrived with Ringo Starr
(Big car arrived with Ringo Starr),
Church tower and steeple
Gazed upon the Beatle
As he had a drag upon his usual fag
(Drag upon his fag)
His partner, Barbara,
Looked in the Awdry’s larder,
While staring at a railway mag –
SHE couldn’t find a bite to eat,
And so, bored, she almost fell asleep;
I’d like to be with the Reverend Aw-d-ry
With Ringo in that garden in the shade
I’d ask my friends to come and see
That meeting in the garden
That changed history –
Oh, what joy for every girl and boy
With Ringo in that garden in the shade
We would be so happy, you and me
Seeing Wilbert telling Ringo what to do;
I’d like to be with the Reverend Aw-d-ry
With Ringo in that garden in the shade
With Ringo in that garden in the shade
My notes from Brian Sibley’s biography are quite extensive but when I get to pages 23-24 in my note-book I can’t remember which bits are from Brian Sibley’s commentary and which bits are from the Daily Mail reporting on the meeting and whenever I’ve popped into the library to have a reacquaintance with the text, the book, alas, has been out on loan … so I’m not quite sure which bits are which in the section coming up … but I think the bits in quotation marks are mostly from the Mail on Sunday.
Ringo arrived in Rodborough Avenue clad in a blue satin jacket; the car was equally flamboyant: a bronze Mercedes, hotfoot from some Berkshire mansion or other, and so to Stroud with ‘Its soft Cotswold features scarred and pitted by roadworks’. He was accompanied by his wife, Barbara Bach. What happened next?
Wilbert ‘began to demonstrate the first part of the timetable of the Knapford-Ffarquhar branch line … a cream-lined jacket over his spare, slightly stooping frame. Round his neck hung a small wooden control-box from which he governed the movement of his engines … “Tell me when you’re bored” … “Not yet,” said Ringo.
Mr Awdry detached a couple of trucks from a line of goods-vans at the touch of an electrode. “Cool” said Ringo.
What happened next? They went out into the back garden. Ringo pulled out a packet of fags and asked Mr Awdry if he fancied ‘a ciggy’: the Rev, of course, was a pipe-smoker. He declined. He then had to correct Ringo on something far more important: Ringo unfortunately referred to the famous engine as ‘Tommy’.
And then this tantalising meeting of two very different worlds began to draw to a close: Wilbert ‘Reminiscing … in that gentle spell-binding way of all good story-tellers, when Ringo said he was sorry, but he had to go. His wife roused herself from a state of almost catatonic boredom … Mr Awdry bade them a courteous abstracted farewell.’