Volunteering day: Landlord Tom hitting all the right notes

International Volunteering Day took place on Tuesday 5th December. To mark it, we're sharing the inspiring story of landlord Tom Reynolds, who plays live music in local care homes. He spoke to Victoria Barker about revisiting a hobby he used to do just after he left school and going to school with one of the most famous musicians the country has produced.

This story was first published in the NRLA's Property magazine. Do you have an inspiring volunteering story to share? Details how to share your story for the chance to be featured in our magazine are below.

What was one of your earliest memories of music?

For landlord and musician Tom Reynolds, playing his accordion as a 16-year-old to rows of expectant pensioners is a recollection etched into his memory.

Now, almost seven decades on, he has gone back to the hobby he enjoyed so much in his younger years, visiting care homes in Warrington three times a month to play his keyboard for residents.

TWIST AND SHOUT

Tom, 83, has been playing and singing in care homes now for six years and says no two afternoons are the same.

“I have more than 300 songs in my repertoire now,” says Tom. “The residents in the care homes tend to enjoy the same music as I do, which is great – music from the 1950s and 1960s goes down very well.” Tom especially enjoys playing the music of the 

Beatles, not least as he was boyhood friends with music legend John Lennon, who he went to school with in Liverpool.
Tom played in a trio at Quarry Bank High School, performing at school functions.

On one occasion, John Lennon approached them to ask if he could join the band, but they rejected
the future Beatle on the basis he couldn’t read sheet music! 

“If only I’d known then what I do now,” Tom chuckles.

The trio did not have a name but was bossed by an older boy ‘Beno’ Bentham who was a classical guitarist.

“John approached me as I was closest to him and, when he claimed to play the guitar, I took him to meet with Beno,”

Tom says. “It quickly transpired that he could only play the three basic chords in the key of E and had never studied music; he stamped off, dejected. “I followed his career with interest but never had any dealings with him after leaving school in 1956. We had been two tough kids together at school shortly after the war".

Lifting the spirits

Tom says the music helps lift the spirits of residents, some of whom are not in the best of health.

"Some people do find life difficult in a home so I like to give residents a chance to have fun and enjoy a singalong and a bit of a dance. There are usually staple songs that I will play every visit because they always go down well, such as ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘All of Me’, and of course some Beatles tracks, too.

“If a resident asks for a song I don’t know, I will go away and find the music for it, practise a few times at home, and come back the next time and play it for them.”

Tom, who lives in Thelwall, Cheshire, began his career as a letting agent, running his family business and managing more than 300 properties for private landlords.

Alongside this, in his 20s, he also played keyboard in a few local bands, as well as wedding band The Springer Quartet. It was in the 1980s, already established in his career as a letting agent, that Tom started to invest in property himself,building up a portfolio of several single lets, which he owned and managed with his wife, Polly, over the course of
25 years. He was also the North West regional representative for the National Residential Landlords Association’s legacy organisation, the National Landlords Association, for a number of years.

Tom retired in 2015 and started to sell some of his portfolio as tenants left properties, also handing over the management to his daughter, Sue Adamson, a local letting agent.

Finding himself with more free time on his hands, he returned to the volunteer work he enjoyed so much as a teen in homes including Gainsborough House, Westy Care Home and Brompton House in Warrington.

A few years before the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Tom was spending several days each week playing the keyboard
in various homes.

With the care sector one of the latest to fully reopen, he is still easing back in, visiting three days a month.

STRIKING A CHORD

Tom says that it’s not just his talent tickling the ivories that brings the afternoons to life, with the staff at the homes key to ensuring residents are able to enjoy the music however they want.

He says: “The staff are excellent, and they support the residents when it comes to joining in. Some people willtap their toes along in time to the beat of a familiar song, their eyes bright.

“Some will actually get up and boogie in the middle of the lounge, sometimes with
Zimmer frames.”

For Tom, the afternoons sitting in front of his keyboard leafing through sheets of music are as fun as they are moving.

“Sometimes, I’ll have tears streaming down my face because I’ll be so moved by the pleasure some of the residents
have when they hear me playing their favourite songs,” he says.

Tom doesn’t always visit the care homes solo. Recently, during half-term school holidays, he invited his young granddaughter to come with him to sing as he played his keyboard duets, something everyone enjoyed.

“It gives me so much joy and is a lot of fun, too,” he says. “I love it.

 Are you a landlord with a volunteering story to share? Or, perhaps you've recently completed a fundraising activity and would be interested in sharing your story in our membership magazine? Please email [email protected] to take part.