NEW YORK — Ringo Starr celebrated his 77^th birthday Friday with a call for more love in the world on a song from a new album that will feature Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney.

The former Beatles drummer announced that Peace and Love, his 19^th studio album, will come out on Sept. 15 and include collaborations with McCartney as well as other major names in rock.

Starr released a first song, “Give More Love,” a pop track whose uplifting chorus has echoes of Beatles classics but with heavier guitar.

Keeping a birthday tradition, Starr encouraged fans around the world to meet up and collectively offer a two-finger peace sign, with the ex-Beatle himself appearing in Los Angeles outside the headquarters of his label Capitol Records.

The peace motif harks back to the hippie era of the 1960s when The Beatles embraced the message of nonviolence — a theme especially dear to late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison.

McCartney is credited on two songs on “Peace and Love,” marking a reunion of all living members of history’s top-selling pop group and the pair’s first recording together since Starr’s 2010 album Y Not.

Starr, who recorded “Peace and Love” at his home studio in Los Angeles, first revealed the collaboration in February when he tweeted a picture of himself embracing McCartney and thanked him for coming to play bass.

Starr on Peace and Love also enlisted several songwriters who worked with him on his last album, 2015’s Postcards from Paradise.

They include Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, soft rock singer Richard Marx, and Toto guitarist and prolific session musician Steve Lukather.

Starr plans eight shows in October at a Las Vegas casino followed by a short US tour. — AFP

ALREADY facing numerous lawsuits, Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland was arrested on federal charges last week. The government alleged he defrauded investors who bought into Fyre Media, Inc., the company behind the music festival that collapsed so spectacularly in the Bahamas a few months back.

But the fiasco’s graduation to prosecution is almost beside the point as far as the festival industry is concerned. Events constructed to attract free-spending youth tend to include some who drink too much or take drugs and consequently do all the risky things that come with both. Organizers already had it tough when it came to getting insurance. Then Fyre Festival came apart, replete with tent cities, stranded teens, broken promises, and a global media spotlight covering it all.

“How exposed is Fyre Media as a company in the case of litigation?” Fyre Media employees presciently asked management in an early May e-mail. The answer has come in about a dozen lawsuits filed since the concert ended with stranded attendees scrambling for shelter and food on a remote island.

A Fyre-like calamity is the greatest fear of most festival organizers. The majority already seek to protect themselves by obtaining insurance, but it doesn’t come cheap, or easy. Insurers typically begin working with mega-festival organizers well in advance, determining exactly what kind of coverage they need. In some cases, risk and claim specialists will even tour facilities in advance and during the festival in an effort to mitigate any potential issues. In an ideal scenario, risk experts remove every danger, and festivalgoers stay safe, employees don’t get hurt, the production company doesn’t get sued, and the insurer doesn’t pay out a huge claim. (A lawsuit filed by National Event Services, Inc. claimed Fyre Festival didn’t purchase cancellation insurance. McFarland’s attorney declined to comment, and her client has yet to enter a plea in his fraud prosecution. He has a bail hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court.)

Big events, those the caliber of Coachella and Bonnaroo, typically take on at least five kinds of insurance policies: cancellation, including terrorism coverage, general liability, umbrella policies, workers compensation, and business auto coverage, explained Peter Tempkins, managing director of entertainment for HUB International. Some will also opt for crime coverage, errors and omissions policies, and directors and officers policies. If videographers are on site, there’s also film insurance.

Festivals can be lucrative, but such policies take out a big chunk. “Music festivals are one of the hardest things to insure because of the alcohol and the drugs,” said Robert Nuccio, president of R.V. Nuccio & Associates Insurance Brokers, Inc. “It’s a different exposure. Can you keep the drugs and alcohol away? No.”

Cancellation insurance will typically cost 1% to 1.5% of the overall cost of an event, as much as $150,000 for a $10-million festival, Tempkins said. General liability coverage is priced per head.

“Depending on the type of event it is and the type of music, that will dictate cost,” he said. General liability coverage for an event without camping can run between 30¢ and 45¢ an attendee, while an overnight event that must protect festivalgoers could be as much as $1.50 a person. Throw a myriad of other insurance options into the mix, and the cost could be well more than $300,000.

Insurers aren’t always rushing to underwrite these mega policies for events defined by drunk, partying teenagers. The decision is often based on what might be considered to be adult supervision: Before Tempkins agrees to accept a client, he takes a close look at who is managing the festival. “The most important thing to me is not who owns the festival, but who is running the festival. I want to know who the actual boots on the ground are, who is really doing everything,” he said. “I know a lot of production people who do festivals. They’re going to do their job the same way every time, no matter who owns it.”

Specific people in the festival chain-of-command, including the site manager, production manager, security director, and medical director, are also considered when a policy is being written. “Safety is a very, very important component for us,” said Sue McGuirl, head of North American entertainment for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, one of the largest event insurers. The company said it’s involved in some aspect of insuring about 90% of America’s music festivals. “They need to have evacuation plans, there needs to be a decision maker if there’s a weather event, there has to be a communications strategy.”

Inevitably, there will be claims, with spectator liability being the most common, said Nuccio. “Most of them are liability claims: slip and fall, molestation, alleged rape, false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, battery.”

In late June, Insomniac Holdings LLC and Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. were sued for the wrongful death of attendee Tom Nicholas at the Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas, alleging the event made it difficult to access water and medical staff. In 2016, the mother of Emily Michelle Tran, who died at the HARD Summer Festival in 2014 after taking MDMA and having a seizure, sued Live Nation for negligence and wrongful death. Insomniac and Live Nation declined to comment on the litigation.

Risk assessment can help curb spectator lawsuits, but little can be done when the weather takes a turn. Hurricane Irene in 2011 led to issues for several festivals that Tempkins helped insure. Electric Zoo, which he worked with at the time, had to stop construction, then reassemble after the storm passed. Another event he helped insure in Houston suffered from such bad rain that it had to be moved at the last minute.

Insurance, while a great safety blanket, isn’t a magic wand. There are caveats to every agreement, especially when it comes to festivals, Tempkins said.

“I’m not convinced that if Fyre had cancellation coverage, it would’ve covered” the costs of refunding attendees, he said, alluding to allegations made by former employees that the organizers were unprepared for the event. “The cause of that was not outside of their control.” — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON — Nelsan Ellis, an actor best known for his role in the vampire series True Blood, has died. He was 39 years old.

The actor died following complications from heart failure, his manager told CNN.

His portrayal of Lafayette, a gay cook and medium, helped him spring onto the acting scene after his character became a favorite of fans of the HBO drama, which ran from 2008 to 2014.

“We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis,” the HBO network said in a statement Saturday. “Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of True Blood.”

“Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO.”

As news of his death spread many fans posted a clip from the show where Ellis’s character bursts out of his restaurant kitchen to confront a table of homophobic diners.

An alumnus of New York’s prestigious Juilliard performing arts conservatory, Ellis’s credits include silver screen appearances in 2009’s The Soloist as well as 2011’s Oscar-award winning film The Help.

“My heart breaks for his kids and his family,” wrote his co-star in that film Octavia Spencer in an Instagram post. “He was sooooo funny. I miss him.”

The Illinois native also depicted Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Butler, released in 2013.

True Blood co-star Joe Manganiello took to Twitter to pay tribute to the late actor: “Crushed today by the loss of my friend and castmate Nelsan Ellis.”

“He was a wonderful person, a pioneer, and a one of a kind artist.” — AFP

Game of Thrones returns

THE EMMY- and Golden Globe-winning Game of Thrones returns for its seven-episode 7^th season same time as the US on Monday, July 17 at 9 a.m. exclusively on HBO, with a same day prime time encore at 9 p.m. New episodes premiere on subsequent Mondays at the same time. Based on the best-selling fantasy book series by George R.R. Martin, the hit fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent kingdom. In the new season, Daenerys Targaryen has finally set sail for Westeros with her armies, dragons and new Hand of the Queen, Tyrion Lannister. Jon Snow has been named King in the North after defeating Ramsay Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards and returning Winterfell to House Stark. In King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister has seized the Iron Throne by incinerating the High Sparrow, his followers, and her rivals in the Sept of Baelor. But as old alliances fracture and new ones emerge, an army of dead men marches on the Wall, threatening to end the game of thrones forever.

Music at RWM

THE PLAZA in Newport Mall, Resorts World Manila spices up evenings with music and food with the Live Mall Sessions — free nightly concerts starting at 7 p.m. The Plaza has turned into a dining hall for the shows as Newport Mall restaurants set up tables directly on The Plaza’s grounds, giving diners premium views of the shows to go with their world class cuisine. Upcoming weekend shows feature “The Singing Diplomat” Raoul Imbach on July 15 (Saturday), and King of Philippine R&B JayR featuring Mica Javier on July 16 (Sunday). Those who prefer cool cocktails to go with their entertainment can visit RWM signature restaurant Bar 360 at the ground floor gaming area. The Draybers, Mocha Girls, Singing Sensations, and Primo lead the pack of artists lighting up the Bar 360’s stage. As a special welcome back treat for guests, Bar 360 and other RWM gaming area restaurants are offering select menu items for only P88 for a limited time. For reservations and inquiries, call the Tourist/Visitor hot line at 908-8000 or visit rwmanila.com for the complete show schedules.

Posporo(s) concert series

POSPORO(s) sets local music enthusiasts on fire on July 15 when Spanish and Filipino artists share the stage again in this series of concerts organized by the Embassy of Spain and the Instituto Cervantes de Manila with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, a project aimed at showcasing indie music talents from both countries. Le Parody and BP Valenzuela take over the scene on July 15, 8 p.m., at Social House, Circuit Makati, Makati City. Entrance to the show is free. Sole Parody, better known by her stage name Le Parody (a play on her own surname), is a Spanish musician and recording artist from Southern Spain. She is also a poet and an advocate of feminism. Her work features African folk, Bollywood rhythms, Asian echoes, flamenco beats and a rave attitude. Meanwhile, BP Valenzuela launched her singing career at 18 while a student at Ateneo de Manila University. In 2014, she released her first EP entitled be/ep and later decided to pursue a degree in music at the De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde. Her debut album, The Neon Hour, was released in 2015, with her first single, “Steady,” featured in the indie film Sleepless. For the first time in Posporo(s), there will be a video installation by Mvltiverse, a multimedia collective formed by Derek Tumala, Megan Palero, Clarissa Gonzalez and Junie Linsoco. Today, Le Parody will perform on the a digital music platform oneMusic.ph.

HISTORY Con is returning

THE 2^nd HISTORY Con entertainment convention will be held on Aug. 10 to 13 at the World Trade Center. HISTORY Con 2017, promoted by Viva Entertainment, promises to be “bigger, better, and bolder,” with more popular celebrities coming to visit, over 300 exhibitors’ displays to explore, three new world records to attempt, and a whole lot more. Among the guests are Ride ‘N Seek host Jamie Dempsey, Forged in Fire finalist and fellow Pinoy Ryu Lim, Counting Cars’ airbrush artist Horny Mike, and Photo Face-Off’s photographer Justin Mott. Back by popular demand is Rick Harrison of Pawnstars, as well as Danielle Colby from The Pickers who will make her debut appearance. The convention will also feature local talent such as Filipino personalities Phoemela Baranda and Gaby Dela Merced for Celebrity Car Wars. HISTORY Con saw 50,000 attendees in 2016. HISTORY is also celebrating its 10^th anniversary in Asia and marks the occasion by awarding 10 notable individuals the HISTORY Maker Awards. Tickets to the convention are now on sale at SM Ticket outlets and www.smtickets.com. Packages for schools and individuals are also available. For details, visit historyasia.com/historycon.