20 years of amazing industry guests
We still can’t quite believe that we opened our doors in Brighton 20 years ago – a lot has happened since then, but something that hasn’t changed is our fantastic selection of industry guests who come and give our students masterclasses.
We’ve hosted almost 2,500 masterclasses in that time, with each guest being as impressive as the last. During these masterclasses, our staff and students have asked 25,000 questions, which means 25,000 answers, helping to guide and inspire our students as they navigate the industry.
We’ve had rock and metal royalty with masterclasses from members of Queen, Slipknot, Guns n’ Roses, Radiohead, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Megadeth, all the way through to rap superstars Chuck D of Public Enemy, KRS-One and Stormzy. Not to mention the amazing singer-songwriters that we’ve hosted with Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap, NAO, Will Young and KT Tunstall all passing through to share their knowledge with our eager students. Perhaps more surprisingly, party-rocker Andrew W.K. visited us, comedy extraordinaire Bill Bailey and even ⅕ of Jackson 5, Tito Jackson, came through to Birmingham.
Chic’s Nile Rodgers visited BIMM London to tell us about the band’s quick rise to fame, U2’s The Edge spoke about BIMM Dublin’s 2016 graduation ceremony and reminded students that advice doesn’t have to be taken and Beyoncé’s bassist, Divinity Roxx performed an exceptional cover of Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’.
The amazing Arlo Parks joined us virtually and revealed her love for emo music. Lianne La Havas told us how we can all support women in music. Even the late, great Jamal Edwards MBE told us how he strived to be “the Banksy of digital content”.
Masterclass Moments
During our ‘masterclass moments’ series, we’ve been highlighting some of our most inspirational quotes from some of our favourite masterclasses.
We’ve had some incredible moments over the years, such as; BIMM Institute Bristol alumni IDLES talked about motivation and live performance “Always, no matter what, play the show that you came to play. Put everything you have into everything you ever do.” Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May discussed self-doubt “Do I believe in this or not? The answer should always be yes.” BRIT Award-winning Popstar Mabel spoke about the importance of knowing who you are as an artist “Know who you are before you let loads of other people in.”
Not to forget the multi-award-winning, platinum-certified grime sensation that is Stormzy who chatted with our BIMM Institute London students about his career and the dangers of social media “Social media is dangerous – it’s your sim character. We’re meant to be in the real world.”
Watch his full quote below and discover more of our masterclass moments on our socials.
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