A Wirral writer, musician and theatre producer has opened a guitar school in the borough.

Rob Fennah is well-known on the local music scene; and so he should be, he's been at it for almost 50 years and has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in the world.

Rob wrote his first top three hit for his band Buster at the tender age of 18 and enjoyed massive success overseas, receiving his first gold album before he was 20.

In recent years he has written and produced a number of successful stage plays including Twopence To Cross The Mersey, which is heading back to Liverpool in November to conclude its tour of the UK.

His Bluenote Guitar School on Wirral is his second on Merseyside.

Explaining the school's origins, Rob told the Globe: "When my band Buster took an enforced break from touring in 1979, due to a contractual dispute between our management company and the record label, I found myself hanging around my mum's house, where I still lived, with nothing much to do.

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"Worse than that, despite all the hits we'd had, I could see my bank balance starting to dwindle and had no idea when we’d be back making records and touring again.

"So, to earn a few quid, I placed a tiny one line ad in the Wirral Globe's 'Personal Column', advertising guitar lessons.

"To my astonishment, the phone never stopped ringing and within a few weeks the neighbours began to see a never ending stream of people of all ages marching up and down my mum's front path.

"Thanks to that little ad, I managed to buy my first house a couple of years later.

"My mum was over the moon!"

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Rob has been teaching ever since and six years ago opened ‘Bluenote Guitar School’ in Crosby, Liverpool.

During the pandemic he also created a 'free' YouTube tutorial site called ‘Fennah Rob’ which has 10,000 subscribers and is increasing daily.

The channel features over 240 tutorial videos of every genre, from Grade 8 classical pieces such as Cavatina, to full on rockers like Kashmir by Led Zeppelin.

Rob said: “The Fennah Rob site came about due to not being able to venture outdoors during the pandemic and the sheer boredom that entailed.

"I'm surprised at how popular the site has become too, some of my vids reaching over 100,000 views in a relatively short space of time.

"To that end I have continued to keep it going.

"Besides, it’s nice to give something back to a community that has supported my work for all these years.

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"As for the future, I’ve always thought of my career as a kind of firework display; when something takes off and bursts into life, I have something ready to take its place before it fizzles out.

"I suppose that's why I started to write stage plays; in the back of my mind they were something that would eventually replace my own live performances, which I still do, but only occasionally these days.

"The one thing I’ve always maintained though is teaching.

"The people I meet, the diverse musical styles they want to learn to play. 43 years on from that first lesson in my mum’s front room and I still love doing it, so much so I’ve just opened my new Bluenote Guitar School branch here in Wallasey, on the sunny Wirral.

"I'm very much looking forward to welcoming some new students and, who knows, maybe one or two from those early days." 

Bluenote Guitar School is now taking on new students.

To find out more visit: https://robfennah.com/

Email: bluenoteguitarschool@gmail.com

Telephone: +44 (0)151 691 0805 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdPrFOPBnDY9xsYxRoG9e3Q