Drummer Zak Starkey has said he felt he was “picked up and carried by the music” when performing at the Liverpool venue where his father, Sir Ringo Starr, started out with the Beatles.
Starkey joined his friend and fellow former Oasis drummer Chris Sharrock for a double drumming session on Saturday alongside the Cavern Club’s Beatles tribute band to play the group’s “holy music”.
The performance came ahead of him taking to the stage with his supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos to play two sets on Sunday at the club which regularly played host to his father’s rock band during their fledgling years.
Reflecting on playing Beatles hits in the venue, Starkey told the PA news agency: “We set up two kits and we double drummed the Beatles show. It was amazing because I was shitting it.
“I’ve never been nervous in my life – I’ve been on stage since I was 12 years old – but it’s holy music. I know it, but I don’t know the drum bits…
“But as soon as I walked on it was like being picked up and carried by the music.”
He said he was “freaked out” ahead of playing the show because he feels it is “not cool” to get Beatles songs wrong but looked forward to his gigs with his supergroup which consists of Happy Mondays stars Shaun Ryder and Bez and Andy Bell of Oasis/Ride on bass.
Starkey, who has drummed for The Who and Oasis, said the style of his new group is “completely different” and “unpredictable” because it is led by Ryder’s freestyle poetry.
The drummer praised the venue for allowing them to perform two shows on the same day, which enabled them to cover the costs of the crew and expenses to put on the gigs as a band not signed to a major label.
He feels more needs to be done to support smaller venues like the Cavern Club, saying: “It’s all right spending billions on great big arenas like they have in Manchester but no-one’s looking after little venues…
“Great big arenas are great for big, boring bands but they’re not for upcoming bands.”
Oasis star Noel Gallagher has become the latest addition to the supergroup, joining the band on their new psychedelic track Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous).
Gallagher is set to reunite with his brother Liam this summer for a long-awaited Oasis reunion tour after the famed Britpop band’s acrimonious split in 2009.
Starkey, who was a member of Oasis between 2004 and 2008, hailed the Manchester-formed group as the “greatest band of my generation” but would not confirm if he would be interested in joining them on tour.
The acclaimed drummer has also collaborated on various songs with his father, whom he says has a “fantastic musical sense of what’s needed to glue it all together”.
One of the projects Starkey worked on with Sir Ringo and his Beatles bandmate Sir Paul McCartney was a charity single for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity.
Starkey claimed the release of the song, which features a host of global stars including Sir Elton John, Billy Joel, Johnny Marr and Iggy Pop, has been brought to a standstill due to someone “withholding” the material.
“Someone is withholding one of the best tracks for me and I can’t say who it is,” he said.
“The only people losing are teenagers with cancer. I can’t put it out until I get it back.”
The drummer believes it would raise a lot of money for charity because they worked for three years on the song, which is a tribute to the music of late guitarist Marc Bolan.
