When she was 89, Barbara McInnis took her first drum lesson. Walking into teacher Chris Joyce’s Morecambe studio, she sat behind the kit, picked up a pair of sticks and began to hit the kit that surrounded her. “I was very nervous but once I got going, it was joyous,” she says. “I made a wonderful racket that I haven’t been able to stop since.”
Six months on from that first lesson, McInnis is known locally as the “90-year-old drummer” and can often be found at Morecambe pubs playing gigs with groups such as the D’Ukes of Lancaster Ukulele Band and Garstang Ukulele Group. “I see Chris every week or two for a lesson and we work through whatever songs are on my gig set list,” she says. “I’m trying to channel my inner Ringo Starr.”
Ever since she retired from her career as a maths and drama teacher in the early 1990s, McInnis has busied herself with a number of creative hobbies. Initially, she decided to take up pottery but while she was at the local college signing up for classes, her eye was drawn to a nearby quilting table adorned with intricate designs. She took up the textile craft instead and soon discovered a knack for detailed embroidery, setting up a workshop in her garden shed to produce pieces for charity.
McInnis’s days were filled with sewing and keeping in touch with her three children, 10 grandchildren and growing brood of great-grandchildren. But then, in 2008, her husband of 40 years was diagnosed with cancer. She put her crafts on hold to become his full-time carer as his health began to deteriorate. By 2010, he had to be moved into a local hospice, where he remained until his death. “I was devastated,” McInnis says. “We had such a close and affectionate relationship, I didn’t know what to do next.”
Concerned that she would feel lonely, McInnis’s sister and brother-in-law suggested she should try joining their local ukulele group. “I was always singing as a little girl and belonged to choirs but I’d never picked up an instrument apart from some piano,” she says. “Still, I went along to the practice, learned two chords and really enjoyed myself.”
As she got into the swing of the ukulele performances, McInnis began to realise the group was missing something – a sense of rhythm. She picked up the tambourine, experimented with the spoons, and eventually brought a snare drum and a pair of drumsticks to rehearsals.
“Everyone would tell me to play with brushes so I was quiet,” she says with a laugh. “I didn’t really know what I was doing, until someone mentioned that Chris was giving lessons in the area, so I gave him a call.”
During that first lesson, Joyce showed McInnis how to grip her sticks properly and channel her unorthodox, free-flowing style into grooves that could back favourite tracks, such as Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. “I was amazed when Barbara turned up – I couldn’t believe she was 89,” Joyce says. “She’s the oldest person I’ve taught, but she listens and practises, which not everyone does. She truly enjoys herself.”
McInnis soon realised that Joyce wasn’t just a teacher but also the former drummer for British soul group Simply Red. “After that, I just wanted to chat to him, not drum!” she says. “But he’s so gentle and patient, we kept working together and that structure has been a real life-saver.”
While Joyce describes McInnis’s drumming style as being closer to the freewheeling chaos of the Who’s Keith Moon than her idol Starr, the pair have perfected a teaching method that sees them sending videos of practice clips back and forth until a groove is established. They have worked on everything from Elton John’s Crocodile Rock to the Beatles’ Octopus’s Garden and even the Mexican folk song La Bamba.
“I’d like to play more rock and I’ve even bought a leather jacket for gigs,” McInnis says. “It’s really brought joy back into my life since drumming is so expressive – you can leave all your emotions on the kit.”
With her next gig scheduled as a fundraiser for her husband’s hospice, as well as new dates with the D’Ukes of Lancaster in the diary, McInnis has found a new creative calling. “I’ll keep going as long as I can,” she says. “My family all find it funny but drumming has helped me embrace my inner wild woman. That chaos is keeping me young!”
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