In issue 661 of Plavi Vjesnik, published on 25th May 1967, there was a short interview with Ringo Starr just before the release of The Beatles Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
RINGO STARR in the LP style…
– The famous astrologer Francesco Waldner predicted some sensational event at the end of 1967. Do you believe it?
– Mr Waldner was wrong. Timewise. That event will take place soon, at the end of May.
– ?
– The new long-playing album by The Beatles will come out. Have you heard of them?
– Well, yes I have. But as far as I know, they’ve already made a few records; it means one more or less, it doesn’t make much difference…
– Waldner prophesied a sensational event, which means that it is a sensational record. There won’t be 12 compositions, as is customary when it comes to an LP record…
– Fewer, but longer?
– It is recommended to take some dry food when listening to it…
– The title?
– Very poetic, simple and relatively short: Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It will also be a new B-bomb with special sounds…
– “B” like Bombay?
– “B” like The Beatles…
– The rest?
– A Day in the Life, with John Lennon as the soloist accompanied by an orchestra composed of 41 members! Then When I’m 64…
– With autobiographical details?
– Just partly. It’s about a couple who have been in love all their life. Paul McCartney sings it. John and Paul sing Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning together, then there will be She’s Leaving Home and finally Meter Rita – John as a soloist – which we’ve worked on for almost a month!
– Are you afraid of financial failure?
– Well, not so much. We expect, and many business people claim, that in a few weeks a million copies of this LP will be sold in England alone.
– That means… I mean in financial terms…?
– Um, as I recall, that should be £1 million 582 pounds sterling, which should then be split: on taxes £250,000, Beatles-singers £72,000, Beatles-writers £60,000, sales £450,000 and the record company £750,000.
– So, the four of you account for only 132,000 pounds (about 460 million old dinars)…
– That’s just in England, I repeat…
– Is there are any more news?
– Paul’s gone to the USA to visit his fiancée Jane Asher, who is touring the theatres there, George shaved off his beard, but as a compensation he allowed his moustache to grow, Paul is looking forward to how the new sound from the latest record will go down with the audience.
– And you?
– I’m enjoying myself with little Zak. Can you imagine, he’s already 18 months old! But, soon he’ll have some competition! I mean, Maureen and me, this…
– Oh? Congratulations!
– Wait, there’s still time, sometime in August…
– Hm, not bad. A new LP, and then in August…
– There you go, we’re trying…
*****
I do not know who the interviewer was or whether the interview was translated from an already existing interview published elsewhere….
Thank to you the Istorija YU rock muzike Facebook group for the scans.
