Once the long road to becoming a rock star meant dropping out of college, getting a punky hair cut, taking drugs and playing in your parents' garage.

These days, things are a bit more professional.

The hair cuts are the same but aspiring musicians have a much better career plan.

They can enroll at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM), which has just opened a second site in Hove.

The new intake of wannabe Beatles and Ella Fitzgeralds has just started at BIMM, based in Brunswick Road West and the aptly-named Rock Place, Brighton.

Over the coming months, they will be taught to play instruments to perfection, perform in public, climb the first steps to stardom and get to know the music business.

The institute, linked to the University of Sussex, Central Sussex College and City College Brighton and Hove teaches courses at GCSE, further and higher-education level.

Among former students now hitting the big time are The Kooks and the drummer from Rooster.

BIMM teaches guitar, bass guitar, song-writing, vocals and drums and has recently started a tour-management course.

They perform at venues including Sussex Arts Club, Ship Street, and sometimes play to 2,000 people - something most teenagers can only dream of.

Principal Vaseema Hamilton said: "Our tutors always say they went through trials and tribulations trying to get into the music industry.

"A school like BIMM can open some of those doors.

"If they have talent, we want to make sure they get heard."

For higher-level courses, students need to be at least Grade 8. They can eventually end up working as performers or in technical and business roles.

Vaseema, former assistant principal for teaching and learning at City College, said: "There is more music being made, performed and recorded now than there ever has been, partly because of the digital age. It isn't just about the high fliers."

In the lecture theatre, students learn of the perils of standing too close to the speakers, risking hearing loss and are told to adjust chairs and stands properly to avoid RSI.

They are also taught about the dangers of drug use.

Some students are members of three or four bands.

Sarah Clayman, one of BIMM's founding directors, said the institute was the opposite of the "boot camp" approach seen on TV shows like X Factor.

She said: "They're more based on TV advertising. If you hear someone's song 20 times, you'll buy it.

"We are the antithesis of that. We start with raw talent."

Third year student Al Brown, a 20-year-old blues singer who has performed at the Joogleberry Playhouse in Manchester Street and Corn Exchange in Church Street and sang for Tony Blair during the Labour Party Conference, said: "Before, I didn't know anything. I just got up and sang. Then I came here and it was so different.

"My plans are to be recording next month for an EP. It has always been a dream just to get my music out."

Tutor Adam Bushell, head of drums, said: "I had one-on-one lessons for five or six years. If a place like this had been around, I would have been down here like a shot. They get lots of different teachers, they're with a bunch of youngsters their own age, they can practice together. It's a far more social thing."

Guitar teacher Pat Heath, who last week spent a lesson teaching a class to play The Beatles' Sgt Pepper, said: "When I was at the Guitar Institute it was rubbish compared to this place. It is a completely different vibe.

"This is much more hands-on, playing in groups, working together instead of scales. They are all keen. At the induction tutorials, one guy said, 'I am so excited I can't stop playing my guitar.'"

BIMM offers A-level equivalent qualifications, diplomas and a full BA Honours degree in modern music for musicians, singers and songwriters.

For more information, visit www.bimm.co.uk