Inspired by the words of a former teacher, three musicians are starting to make a name for themselves.

Now playing packed festivals and recording in a world-renowned studio, DanDelion Rose have come a long way.

But if things had gone to plan, the band, made up by former Henbury and Macclesfield High pupils, may never have even started.

The trio – Dan James, 26, Jake Melling, 27, and James Bracegirdle, 23, – had originally got together to help Dan record his solo stuff, but found their chemistry hard to ignore.

James, the bassist, said: “It’s hard to say how we met really, growing up in Macclesfield everyone knows of each other.

“We’re all different ages so it wasn’t until we started playing music together that we became close. Dan was recording his solo stuff in the studio and asked Jake, a drummer, to record some drums and I recorded some piano.

“We started practicing weekly and quickly found some chemistry between ourselves, so playing live was the logical next step. It wasn’t necessarily the end goal to play live as a band, that just happened naturally.”

And the band have gone on to record for BBC Introducing and perform at Macclesfield Festival and Tramlines Festival, in Sheffield.

Dan added: “Walking in to the studio and seeing the BBC Introducing signs all over the place felt like we’d reached a next level. We weren’t nervous really, we have a lot of confidence in our music and knew people would enjoy it.

“Macclesfield Festival in July last year, is probably our biggest gig. That was a lot of fun and pretty special for us, it was our first festival and great to do that in our home town. We also played Tramlines the same weekend.”

But James, who works at silk makers Think Positive, in Macclesfield, says they have one person to thank for inspiring them to follow their passion.

He added: “We’re all self taught musicians but we all had the same music teacher at school, Dave Rodgers, who was an inspiration to be around.

“He was the music teacher at Henbury and Macclesfield High. He just had this intense energy and passion when it came to music and teaching. It’s that kind of natural enthusiasm that you have to look up to and is something we try to emulate when it comes to writing and performing. Something like that never leaves you.”