Rock This Way

A third level rock and roll education will soon be within reach with the news that Brighton and Bristol Institute of Modern Music, the successful UK rock college, is to establish a Dublin outpost. From this September BIMM will offer a vocational rock and roll course for full time students. Run in partnership with Dublin Institute of Technology the four-year BA (Hons) degree, with places for up to 500 students, will give enrolees the opportunity to study guitar, bass, drums, vocals, songwriting and music business studies. Classes will be held at a new, state-of-the-art purpose-built facility in Dublin city centre.

BIMM was set up in 2001 in Brighton by Kevin Nixon, Sarah Clayman and Bruce Dickinson, who all have backgrounds in the music industry. It has since grown to become one of the most recognised and established modern music colleges in the UK with colleges in Brighton, Bristol and London. The Kooks, Beth Rowley, members of The Ordinary Boys and Kate Walsh are past students.
The degree course in modern music is designed to teach students the tools to gain a career in a range of roles within the music industry both here and abroad, including artist management, live music production, performance and publishing.
“We’re teaching modern commercial music,” says Bruce Dickinson, BIMM Education Director (and a former member of ‘90s rockers Little Angels). “It’s career-oriented, with a very structured curriculum, based on fundamental musical principles. When you’re dealing with rock and roll, you almost have to over-compensate. So there are very high standards academically. It’s all about sustaining a career in the music business.”
The college philosophy is “run by musicians for musicians”, and the BA (Hons) degree course on offer from BIMM Dublin will be delivered by tutors who are already active professional musicians with a variety of touring, performing and session experience under their belts. Some well-known homegrown names offering tutorials at BIMM Dublin include Cathy Davey, Ollie Cole, Steve Wall, Graham Hopkins, Colm Quearney, Dave Hingerty and Dan O’Connor.
According to Kevin Nixon, president of BIMM, the Dublin campus has been a long time in the planning.
“We started working on this link-up at least 10 years ago,” he explains. “We always felt it might be possible to take it international, and Dublin was the first one we discussed outside the UK. We wanted to get the model right and we were in no hurry. We wanted it to be fantastic and it will be. There is already a huge pool of potential talent in Ireland. We’re offering a way of nurturing that talent.
“It’s always good to have a pool of talent in one place, he adds. “When, say, TV people are looking for a team of backing vocalists, they come to us.”
BIMM graduates have scored thirty UK top 40 singles and been involved in UK top 20 albums. Plus many have gone on to work in artist management, record labels, publishing and live music production. Despite their impressive roll of past pupils, BIMM deny that the notion of a formal education in rock and roll is a contradiction in terms.
“It’s not strictly true,” says Sarah Clayman, BIMM Managing Director, who has worked in artist management and promotion with Sony. “In the past, art schools provided a safe environment for musicians such as John Lennon, Pete Townshend and Ray Davies to develop and a place where they could meet like-minded people. We don’t try to teach originality or tell students how to sound. They will be in an environment where they can develop their creativity, where they can discover themselves. You also learn about publishing, record deals and marketing. It’s very important for young musicians to have a grounding in the business – it is the ‘music business’ after all. We had Roger Daltrey in with us and he said that he wished there’d been something like BIMM when he was starting out.”
Kevin Nixon: “There is a lot of snobbery in music. Classical, jazz, opera, etc. have this right of legitimacy that needs to be extended to all music young and old. BIMM Dublin is for young people who care deeply and who are committed to a career in music, and we are very excited about the talent that it will undoubtedly attract.
“We expect some already established musicians to take part. For example when Kate Walsh came to us she was already signed to Kitchenware. Her career had kind of not happened, so she came on our songwriter course which, given her ability, was a compliment to us. The course gave her a chance to rethink things and to learn about the business. She got a new deal and her first album after being with us was number one on iTunes. That’s how we measure success.”
The BIMM Dublin course begins in September 2011 and is accessed via the CAO points system. Prospective students will also be assessed by one of BIMM Dublin’s tutors.
“We like to meet and speak to people personally,” says Nixon “We will be holding auditions at Vicar St., where we will give each student around 45 minutes, where typically they’ll play something they are comfortable with. We will also be assessing ability, work ethic and attitude, which is very important.”

For more info, see www.bimm.ie.