Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

LOS ANGELES: A group of elderly musos have given old age the flick, forming their own retiree rock band in a major Sunshine Coast retirement village.

Rob Shinner, Bev Pool, Russell “Rusty” Walter and Carolyn Sargeant have been performing at the Stockland B by Halcyon retirement community where they also practice at the soundproof music room.

Mr Shinner described the band as “just a group of friends getting together and having fun”.

He said the once a week jamming session keeps the retirement village residents’ brains and fingers active.

“(If you think) you can’t do it, you’re not good enough – no one knows until you give it a go,” he said.

He hopes the band will become an inspiration to others, and welcomes those who hear their gigs to try form their own band.

The band currently performs covers for the village to provide entertainment.

They have been practising 70s, 80s and 90s music from “across the board,” from country to rock ‘n’ roll, including Elvis, Creedence Clearwater Revival and James Reyne.

The band formed about a year ago originally with Ms Pool and their first drummer, with the pair practising at the drummer’s home.

Chris Knox joined as a guitarist and Mr Shinner said he was invited to join as a singer.

Carolyn Sargeant also plays piano for the band.

The drummer has since returned to Canada and Russell “Rusty” Walter stepped into the role and the retirement village’s music room opened for the band to use.

Mr Shinner said Mr Walter had not touched a drum set in more than 50 years and had been focusing on guitar instead during that time.

“He picked it up like he hadn’t left it,” Mr Shinner said.

Mr Knox also recently moved out of the village but the band has another prospective guitarist lined up.

Mr Shinner said they have been approached by another drummer joining the village in coming months and Mr Walter would potentially move to bass or acoustic guitar.

When the band started to come together, Mr Shinner had thought “oh great, I’ll give this a go,” and it has provided a sense of personal fulfilment and achievement, he said.

Mr Shinner said they are a lighthearted, “happy-go-lucky” band who are just there to have fun, so they don’t particularly need a band name at this stage.