Our list of bands and artists scheduled to perform at Austin's 2008 SXSW Music Festival has zoomed past the 400 mark all the way up to more than 540 confirmed so far, slightly more than 1/3 of the acts that are supposed to perform. The list includes a seemingly endless number of DJs and MCs, as well as a huge quantity of singer/songwriters. Click here to see the latest
SXSW 2008 Rumored and Confirmed Band List.
One singer/songwriter whose name has not appeared on the confirmed list but has unexpectedly burst onto the rumor list today is the legendary Ringo Starr. Starr is in the states promoting his new release Liverpool 8 and has just announced a surprise set in L.A. at The House Of Blues on January 25th. As a bonus if you buy a copy of the new CD at Amoeba Music in Hollywood you can get a free "bypass the line" pass to get you into the party for free. For more details on how to see Ringo check out his web site at
http://www.ringostarr.com
Ringo is not actually "touring" but word on the street from my sources is that he has a few more of these party stops planned around the U.S. and there may be a SXSW stop on that schedule. Considering that SXSW is fast becoming one of the U.S. premier events and attracts more press than a Brittany Spears court appearance, this would be a perfect event to showcase the new album. I contacted his U.S. publicist for confirmation on this or any other U.S. dates and got lots of "no comments" and "can neither confirm nor deny" though they did promise to send me a copy of the new disc. SXSW had Robert Plant in 2005, Pete Townsend in 2007, Ringo Starr in 2008 certainly has a nice ring to it (no pun intended).