"I was the girl who didn't speak - well now I'm on stage and loving every minute"
“After cancer I thought, what’s the worst that can happen?”
A retired nurse who was known as the quiet one of the family has found her voice- and you can listen on Spotify.
68-year-old Carole Kimberley who is originally from Glasgow, but now lives in Bamber Bridge, picked up a guitar less than a year ago and has now written and released a host of songs about her life.
As well as putting them out on streaming platforms, Carole now also regularly takes part in open mic nights at The Victoria in Lostock Hall and Preston’s Vinyl Tap.
She said: “I love it and the feedback is always good too. One woman at the last open night said that I’d given her the inspiration to also give it a go.”
Carole’s love of music can be traced back to her childhood, with happy memories of her mum playing the Beatles, Elvis and Herman’s Hermits. Her own music taste she describes as varied, ranging from rock to folk, country and blues.
Songs she has written include: Dead and Gone, Going Home, Remission, Music and Me, Grandkids, Halycon Days, Go Out Instead, and Our Frodo - which is about her Yorkie dog who died in October.
Carole said: “I started learning the guitar just days after he died, because we used to do a lot for him, and suddenly there was a void of time. I taught myself inititally, by watching videos on YouTube, then I saw an advert for a beginners group in Penwortham, so I joined there in January. I’m really surprised at how quickly I’ve picked it up.”
She said she finds writing and performing music therapeutic, with a lot of her songs about her life growing up. Other songs are about her later life, including her health battles and struggles with isolation in lockdown, due to chemotherapy treatment.
And Carole has certainly had a colourful life, having been married three times, with 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, a 20-plus year career in the NHS, coping with an alcoholic father, battling with breast cancer, and nursing her “wonderful” mother who died from Alzheimers.
Carole says she gets lost in her music, with hours passing without her realising. She said: “I do spend a lot of time at home, in the back bedroom, playing and writing. My husband has to remind me to come down.”
And it’s her husband who she credits with giving her the confidence to pursue her newly-discovered talent and to get on stage.
She added: “My family are proud and say they wouldn’t have the bottle to get up and do it, which is funny because I was always the quiet one, the girl who wouldn’t speak. But then something just clicked. I think my husband Brian has a lot to do with it - he’s wonderful, he’s changed my life.
“After cancer I thought, what’s the worst that can happen? I’ve always wanted to do it but never had the bottle, but then one day I just went for it.”
Carole also thanks her friends Lynda Lamb and Ann Batty - both well known figures on the Preston music scene - for their encouragement.