Ringo's Chicago peace-in

BY PAIGE WISER pwiser@suntimes.com Ringo Starr got some bad news on his birthday. Preservationists in England announced that his birthplace in Liverpool would be demolished, saying it does not have sufficient link to the Beatles to be saved. Bummer. But at least Starr got his birthday wish. He had asked that, at noon Monday, everyone make a peace sign and say, "Peace and love." Starr himself hosted the first Peace and Love Day in Chicago outside the Hard Rock Hotel. He had originally wanted to have the "peace-in" at Buckingham Fountain, but city workers were still cleaning up from Taste of Chicago. So about 200 Beatles fans crowded the sidewalks outside the hotel instead, waiting in the heat and drizzle on South Water Street for further instruction. "Ringo invites me to his 68th birthday party, I'm coming," said Neil Blum,... [read full story]