‘Got to pay your dues, if you wanna sing the blues,’ sang Ringo Starr wistfully after the demise of the lucrative Beatles money-spinning machine in 1970, ‘but you know it don’t come easy.’ Mr Starr was reacting to the sudden discovery of a huge build-up of Fab Four debts and deficits and the grisly realisation that all those luxuries he took for granted were gone; that he alone was now responsible for his own destiny, for earning his own keep and for living within his means.