Drumming It For The Girls

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She doesn't do drugs, doesn't smoke, her favourite word is marmalade and – she's a drummer

When most people think of drummers, they think of male,
uneducated, smoking, drug using, throw-TV’s-out-of-windows
kind of people. Then, when their child says that this drummer is
their role model most usually recoil in horror. But a new age in
drumming is being brought forward, and the one leading the pack, and doing it for the girls, is Caroline Corr, drummer and percussionist
for Irish band The Corrs.

Caroline Corr - The Right Time Documentary 1997

“Well, we needed a drummer...and well, I had nothing better to do,” the modest 27 year old told an interviewer.

Caroline is a very talented musician. As well as playing the drums, she plays the bongos in the band's cover of “Everybody Hurts” by REM and also the bodhran, an Irish drum. She started playing the piano at the age of six and now plays piano in their hit song “Runaway” and does a duet of “No Frontiers”, with sister Sharon in their concerts.
She loves playing traditional Irish music, particularly the two songs that feature regularly in their concerts, “Haste to the Wedding” and “Toss the Feathers.”
Caroline has brought about a new age in drumming. Whilst most drummers from bands that are in the spotlight are male, such as Zac Hanson from the band Hanson and singers usually have male drummers, she has changed the identity by being a fully fledged female drummer.

“We need more girls playing – definitely! I think women are put off by it, seeing as so many men are playing. So yeah, definitely more girls!”

Caroline Corr was born on St Patrick's Day 1973, in a small town called Dundalk, situated halfway between Dublin and Belfast. She thinks photo shoots “suck” and male journalists voted her the Corr they'd most like to take out on a night with the lads. Ironically, most of her friends when she was younger were boys. She is known as Tomboy Corr and is frequently compared to crazy Animal from the Muppets.

It's nice to know, that even though she's famous, sometimes all she'd like to do is curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and watch “Eastenders” (a British soap).
Caroline also has some very interesting...if not rather odd habits.
Caroline sniffs her jumper.

“This is so embarrassing! I've been exposed as a secret jumper sniffer! It's like a comforter. I do it when I'm watching TV.”

This is a lot easier to understand when one knows that the word “Corr” is actually Irish for odd.

It is nice to know though, that although she may appear a saint, and that with her brother and sisters, they are the “most squeaky clean band in pop”, all is not as it seems, as was found out in a radio interview in 1997.

“CC: Lots of drama (giggles)
J: Why?
CC: Well, I have to. It's not, we're not all angels y’know. I mean it's not, erm, it’s...it’s not really I suppose the perception is kind of always, y’know it's kind of always very nice and everything like that, but erm, we do fight like any normal family. Anybody who I mean, has been on the road with their family all the time, we have the odd squabble. But uh, we've learnt to kinda get along. Try to get along as professionally as possible y’know. But it's okay.”

Caroline's contribution to drumming has been considerable, with her band The Corrs releasing their third album this year, on which Caroline played the drums and other percussion. She plays percussion at all their live concerts and live appearances.
Caroline has jammed with many of her drumming heroes, including Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac in the concert the Corrs did in the Royal Albert Hall on St Patrick's Day 1998.

Although the Corr girls (Andrea, Sharon and Caroline), are considering marriage and children, they still hope to continue playing and recording albums for the rest of their lives. And we hope that Caroline will continue to drum on, in the hope that more females will come out and play! Let's make drumming an equal playing field!