Realistic Rock Academy was formed in 2004 by brothers Robin and Richard Henderson.
After graduating in 1997 from the first ever national diploma offered in popular music by the Academy of Contemporary Music, Guildford, Robin Henderson started teaching guitar to private students from his parents house in Ewell, Surrey as well as working part time in a local village pub and fronting his own pop, punk band with brother Richard. After 18 months Robin decided to leave his part time job and concentrate solely on his band and went off to tour Europe and showcase for record labels with their manager/producer Nick Tauber (Def Lepard, Thin Lizzy).
By 2002 Robin and Richard decided it was time to give up the touring lifestyle and use their live band experience to coach and inspire young musicians. Robin’s guitar teaching business had started to grow organically from word of mouth and the help of personal recommendation to customers from Roger Lunt, manager of Bootleg music in Epsom. By 2003 Robin was teaching 32 hourly lessons per week. His brother Richard also left his part time job at Surrey County Council to take up the role of drum tutor, also in the family home.
The brothers held their first ever workshop at Glyn Hall in Ewell Village, inviting guitar and drum students to accompany one another by playing live in a band. The concept was well received by the students and a series of one off workshops led to the brothers being approached by Surrey Youth Development Service to run workshops at the local youth centre.
In Winter 2004, Realistic Rock was born with Robin and Richard writing and delivering their first ever course (still running to date). ‘Beginners to Band Members’ took young musicians from learning their first chord, note or beat on their instrument to playing a live concert in just 10 weeks. With the summer approaching, Realistic Rock approached local theatre Epsom Playhouse to run a new course, ‘Get In A Band and Play’ where young musicians could write their own song over the first week of the Summer holidays and then compete in a battle of the bands competition. The course was a huge success and the first ever Realistic Rock winning band emerged, four musically gifted and very confident performers, ‘The Flaming Monkeys’.
