Sir Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey was “s******* my pants” before playing The Cavern for the first time with Mantra Of The Cosmos on Sunday (19.01.25).
The Beatles drummer’s offspring had only visited his father’s home city once before and had never stepped foot inside the famous music venue where the legendary Liverpool band – which also included Sir Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon and George Harrison – started out.
That all changed when the all-star supergroup – completed by Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and Bez and former Oasis bassist Andy Bell – played two shows there in one day, and he admitted it was a “surreal” experience.
Ahead of the gigs, former Oasis drummer Zak contacted the group’s guitarist Noel Gallagher for some reassurance.
The ‘Wonderwall’ hitmaker sings on the supergroup’s latest single, ‘Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous)’, which was launched at the Cavern gig, with support act Keyside’s frontman Dan Parker stepping in for the Britpop legend.
Zak told the Liverpool Echo: “It was very surreal. I was s******* it – proper s****** it until I got on there and it was amazing. The music is like holy music isn’t it.”
Recounting his conversation with Noel, he added: “Before I was s******* my pants. I was sitting in my room, and I text Noel saying I was s****** it. He said, ‘Get down there and get on, what are you talking about?’”
Mantra Of The Cosmos have only played a handful of shows, including making their debut at Glastonbury in 2023.
Shaun said of playing The Cavern: “I was f****** amazed myself that it went really well.
“We’d done two shows before we did Glastonbury (2023) – that was chaos and then a couple of nights before that we did a London show at The Box in Soho. It went really well. I’m dead pleased. We used to bring the kids here and do the Cavern and do the photographs with the statues – it’s Liverpool, isn’t it.”
The setlist also included previous singles ‘Gorilla Guerilla’ and ‘X (Wot You Sayin?)’, plus a cover of The Pogues’’ Dirty Old Town’ and their unreleased tune ‘Nice Slice’.
Ahead of the gigs, Zak spoke about playing the venue his parents used to go on dates to.
The musician – whose late mother Maureen worked as a hairdresser in Liverpool – said: “Can’t believe I’ve never even been there.
“There’s a great deal of family heritage at the Cavern, aside from the Beatles, my parents courted there… who knows I may have even been conceived there.”