Gregory Katz

The Associated Press

LONDON — Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Bee Gee Barry Gibb are among the celebrated citizens who have been selected for knighthood and other awards given in the name of Britain's monarch.

Britain's Cabinet Office publishes a list of the people receiving honors for merit, service or bravery twice a year: just before New Year's Eve, and in June when Queen Elizabeth II's birthday is officially observed.

The New Year's Honors List made public late Friday revealed that Starr and Gibb, the oldest and last surviving of the brothers who made up the pop group the Bee Gees, have been tapped as knights, the highest honor, giving them the right to call themselves Sir in the United Kingdom.

Starr, 77, who already has an MBE (Member of the British Empire) granted to all the Beatles in 1965, is getting the knighthood 20 years after the only other surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney, 75, was knighted.

"It's great!" Starr said of his knighthood in a brief message Friday. "It's an honor and a pleasure to be considered and acknowledged for my music and my charity work, both of which I love. Peace and love. Ringo."

Gibb said he was dedicating his knighthood to his late bandmates, twin brothers Robin Gibb, who died in 2012, and Maurice Gibb, who died in 2003.

"I want to acknowledge how responsible my brothers are for this honor," said Gibb, 71. "It is as much theirs as it is mine."

Also on the honors list is Michael Morpurgo, 74, the children's author celebrated for War Horse. Actor Hugh Laurie, 58, who made a splash in the U.S. as Dr. Gregory House on House M.D. and already the possessor of an OBE (Officer of the British Empire), will get an upgrade to CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to drama.

Scores of politicians, scientists, renowned researchers, volunteers, dancers and actors also are on the honors list.

The honors process starts with nominations from the public, which first are reviewed by a specialist committee and then by a main honors committee. The nominations are then sent to the prime minister before the various honors are bestowed by the queen or senior royals.

The awards themselves will be handed out by the queen or senior royals in palace ceremonies early in the new year.

The future knight is listed as Richard Starkey, a Liverpudlian being honored for services to music, but the world knows him as Ringo Starr, drummer for one of the most famous bands in the history of recorded music.

He missed the Beatles' hardscrabble years, when they had to scramble for a gig and play sleazy clubs in Germany to get by, joining John Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison just before they rocketed to stardom.

There were flashier drummers in the rock pantheon — Keith Moon and Ginger Baker come to mind — but Starr fit the band's approach perfectly, playing with uncanny style and imagination as the band's music branched out from its early American rock influences. The drum parts in Ticket to Ride, Rain and Strawberry Fields Forever are all seen as masterful contributions to timeless songs.

Starr also had a way of mangling words that pleased Lennon, who used Starr's offhand quips to develop the songs A Hard Day's Night and Tomorrow Never Knows.

He has enjoyed a successful solo recording career since the Beatles broke up in 1970 and continues to tour with a shifting ensemble known as Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band. Each show features a performance of With a Little Help from My Friends, his signature song from the Sgt. Pepper album.

Gibb was recognized for services to music and charity. "This is a moment in life to be treasured and never forgotten," he said.

The Bee Gees formed in the late 1950s and enjoyed two distinct periods of commercial success: first as a Beatles-influenced pop band and later as leading avatars of the disco movement, particularly on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that achieved global fame. The band enjoyed phenomenal success in the disco era of the 1970s, consistently topping the singles charts and racking up huge album sales.



Author Morpurgo, 74, says he is giving his knighthood to Joey, the fictional horse at the center of his 1982 book War Horse and the wildly successful play that followed in 2007, bringing him worldwide fame. It was also made into a 2011 film by Steven Spielberg.

The story, set at the start of World War I, chronicles the friendship between a young boy and his horse, Joey. It was staged using life-size horse puppets that enchanted audiences.

Morpurgo is being knighted for his charitable works as well as for his writing, but he says the honor is really about War Horse and the impact of the production staged by the National Theatre.

"There was never a knight that has owed so much to his horse as this one — and in fact, we will give the knighthood to Joey and call him Sir Joey," said Morpurgo, a former school teacher. He said it was the "great good fortune" of his writing life to be associated with the play.