Former Beatles Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr back together again

Former Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney appeared on stage together for the first time in seven years on Saturday night, at New York's Radio City Music Hall. In a concert to support film-maker David Lynch's foundation, which aims to encourage world peace by teaching transcendental meditation to 'at-risk' schooolchildren, the two remaining Beatles sang With a Little Help From My Friends for a crowd of 6,000, some of whom had paid $2,000 for their tickets.

The moment was worth it - though it was generally agreed that the concert could have done without some of the support acts, which included the former flower power folk singer Donovan, Beach Boy Mike Love and Lynch himself, dressed in suit and tie, getting very serious about the importrant work done by his foundation. The director of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet even showed a video of stressed-out kids who, he said, were in desperate need of meditation.

It had been stated last month that McCartney and Starr would play together but few in the audience were expecting it to happen after a spokesman for the David Lynch Foundation retracted the promise and neither McCartney's nor Starr's publicists would confirm the reunion.

In the event, McCartney called Starr on stage - introducing  him as 'Billy Spears', his Sgt Pepper pseudonym - and the two old friends also performed I Saw Her Standing There and, in a nod to the theme of the night, Cosmically Conscious, originally a hidden track on McCartney's 1993 album Off the Ground.

The last time the two performed together was in 2002 at a Royal Albert Hall tribute concert for George Harrison, when they were joined on stage by Eric Clapton to perform While My Guitar Gently Weeps. ·