Both Sides Call Ruling a Victory as Ringo Pays $74,000 for Tapes

Attorneys for Ringo Starr and a Tennessee record producer, who was ordered to turn over potentially embarrassing recordings to the former Beatle in exchange for $74,000 in expenses, each claimed victory Saturday in a contract dispute.

The ruling Friday by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Clarence Cooper apparently ensured that there will be no public release of Starr’s 14 songs recorded in 1987 while under the influence of alcohol.

“We’re very happy with that,” said Starr’s attorney, Jane Stevens.

Atlanta attorney Thomas Washburn III said that he considers the monetary ruling a “partial victory” for producer Chip Moman of Memphis, Tenn., but that he will appeal to uphold an alleged verbal agreement in which Starr agreed to share royalties on his next two albums with Moman.

Moman and CRS Records of College Park, Ga., were seeking $162,000 for expenses incurred at a Memphis studio where Starr recorded in 1987, as well as judicial validation of the verbal agreement on future recordings.

Moman attempted to release the recordings to coincide with Starr’s first U.S. tour in more than a decade, a 30-city event that ended Sept. 24.

But Starr, who testified in an Atlanta courtroom last October, won a court order blocking the release of the recordings, which he said were made when he was drinking up to 16 bottles of wine a day.