...become a rock chick!
Janet Littlewood explains why it’s never too late to do something you love...
Sitting before an audience of 150 people, they cheered as if Debbie Harry had performed. Guitar in hand, I bowed, my eyes brimming with tears. ‘They’re clapping for me!’ I thought triumphantly.
Except, I wasn’t an award-winning rock star with multiple records under my belt, I was a mum-of-two who’d transformed into a rock chick — aged 63.
Music has been the love of my life since the age of 14. As soon as I heard Sgt
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, I was hooked. I spent hours dancing to the radio and singing into my hairbrush back home in West Yorkshire. And, when I was old enough, I went out clubbing. I didn’t need booze to have fun, the music was mesmerising.
When I turned 21, moved to Swindon where I went to gigs, pubs and clubs most nights. I fell pregnant a few years later and I loved playing music to my bump. Lee was born in February 1974, followed by Gavin, seven years later.
When you become a parent, often your own hobbies take a back seat – and that’s what happened with music. There was no time to go to gigs – and certainly no time for clubbing! Instead, days were filled with school drop-offs and making dinners. As a single mum, things weren’t easy.
Then, in 1995, I started dating again. Peter, then 47, was so charming. And, in August 2004, we married. Life was happy. But then in 2015, Peter was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
We were devastated. Back and forth to the hospital for tests and treatment, I lived in complete fear of losing the man I loved.
Peter and I had lots of honest, late-night chats. I needed a hobby to totally focus on, away from Peter’s health problems and the hospital visits. The next day, I started thinking about it again, and that’s when it hit me – I’d loved music this whole time, and never even thought to learn how to play an instrument.
So, that same day, I ordered a cheap acoustic guitar and after finding local tutor, Stevie Ritz, online, I signed up for music lessons. It wasn’t too expensive, besides, I reasoned I deserved to treat myself once in a while. Peter thought it was a great idea – but the boys weren’t so sure! ‘You’re kidding!’ Gavin, then 34, said when I told him. He was in hysterics that a 63-year-old woman had bought herself a guitar.
But a week later, in October 2015, I went to my first class – and I was giddy with excitement. My teacher showed me the chords and I was hooked.
As the weeks passed, I got better and better. The first song I learned in full was
Songbird by Oasis. And back home, I’d tell Peter about it all, while he recuperated from round after round of chemo. ‘You sound happy,’ he’d tell me. He was my biggest fan.
I was bereft when, in May 2017, he passed away. I couldn’t begin to imagine life without him. Music was my only solace. And, knowing how proud Peter had been of me, I kept playing. That July, my tutor encouraged me to take part in the student concert and as I stood on stage thrashing out Spirit in the
Sky, by Norman Greenbaum, I thought of my wonderful husband.
As I walked off the stage, Gavin and his partner April pulled me in for a hug.
These days, I’ve got four guitars and I’m determined to learn more rock songs – I’ve even made a CD. I’m proof that you’re never too old to rock out.
‘I’VE GOT FOUR GUITARS’