Class acts: the school that rocks

Paul Green’s unique college teaches rock’ n’ roll. But sex and drugs are off the curriculum

IT WAS not what Grace Hollaender had hoped for when her teenage daughter, who had been playing classical violin since she was 4, started playing lead guitar in a rock group. Visions of a rock’n’roll lifestyle, of drug-fuelled revelry and dodgy boyfriends abounded when Led Zeppelin overtook Sibelius as the music of choice.

But far from being a tattoo-smattered rebel, Grace Jr is politely spoken and does her homework. And she did not learn her riffs and chords leaping about in a garage smelling of grease and stale beer, but in “rock school”. In fact, Mrs Hollaender is about to accompany her 17-year-old daughter on a tour of Germany with Paul Green, the man turning her into a budding band guitarist.

Green, a “failed” rock