Huge crowds gathered at Liverpool's Albert Dock on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, to celebrate Ringo Starr's 86th birthday. Among the attendees was Barry Chang, who drove The Beatles on their inaugural trip to Germany in August 1960, long before Beatlemania.
Barry Chang's Unique Connection
Barry Chang, alongside former Jacaranda owner Allan Williams, drove The Fab Four to Hamburg. Allan was married to Barry's sister Beryl, so Barry, a trainee civil engineer, joined the trip "more or less as a summer holiday." Allan, The Beatles' first manager, personally drove the band to secure their legendary residencies. The cramped van had no seats, forcing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best to sit on their amplifiers for the journey to Harwich before taking the ferry to the Hook of Holland.
Barry recalled: "We set off from Liverpool and we went by road all the way there. I was at school with two of The Beatles and also Mike McCartney, Paul’s younger brother. So on the day, when we left, we were all, give or take, around 20-years-old or even less. I was only 19 and bear in mind there was no such thing as Beatlemania, it was the beatles with a lower-case b. It was a normal trip because no one had heard of them, especially like today, across the world."
The Iconic Photo at Arnhem
During the journey, the group stopped at the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in Arnhem. Barry, the only one with a camera, took a now-iconic photo of the group around the cenotaph. He said: "I took the photo with the inscription 'their name liveth forever more' in the background. It’s an amazing statement for The Beatles, prophetically." The image shows Allan Williams, Beryl Williams, Lord Woodbine (Harold Phillips), Stuart Sutcliffe, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best, likely taken by John Lennon.
Celebrations at Albert Dock
At the Royal Albert Dock, pupils from Ringo Starr's primary school, St Silas, were in attendance. Over 100 members of the public joined the celebration. Since 2008, Ringo has invited people everywhere to pause at noon local time on his birthday to say, think, or post "Peace and Love" as a collective moment of global unity. At The Beatles Story museum, the crowd sang songs including "Hey Jude," "All You Need is Love," and "Yellow Submarine." Footage from the event is shared on Ringo's official Facebook page as part of the international celebration.
The museum added: "In the words of Ringo Starr on his iconic 'Peace and Love' mantra, 'I think it’s important every day – and right now the world is going through a madness. Maybe it’ll help. I’m an optimist, not a pessimist.'"
