BRITAIN is witnessing a revival of garage rock, with sales of guitars, amplifiers and sheet music reaching record levels.

The DJ has been banished as a new generation of children, and their parents, learn to hammer out their favourite riffs.

Fragile Pop Idol talents are being shunned. Virtuoso rock bands the Darkness, the White Stripes and the Strokes are credited with inspiring young fans to recreate the classic rock template of guitar, bass and drums.

Guitars, predicted to become obsolete in the synthesiser age, are being tuned once again. Sales have soared by 46 per cent since 2000, with 700,000 acoustic and electric “axes” bought last year, according to the Music Industries Association.

Sales of amplifiers, without which no true antisocial noise can be achieved, soared by 65 per cent in the same period.

The pop single may be on the decline but sales of sheet music, the measure of any tune’s play-along popularity before the Top 40, rose by 11 per cent last year.

The Department for Education and Skills is now asking music performance bodies how more “guitar gurus” can be found to teach the queues of adolescents seeking to solo on their instruments.

Virgin has responded to the live music surge by turning its Oxford Street Megastore into London’s biggest instrument warehouse.

The big Christmas musical hit for the new strummers will be a book of challenging musical tablature to accompany Permission To Land, the platinum album by the Darkness. Virgin and HMV are ordering 50,000 copies for the book’s release next month, enough sales to push it to the top of most bestseller lists.

Virgin’s top-selling sheet music albums this year are the White Stripes, Robbie Williams and the Strokes.

Sheet music sales were worth £32 million last year, compared with £26 million in 1997, according to the Music Publishers Association.

The London Guitar Show attracted nearly 20,000 visitors to Wembley this year. Clive Morton, the show’s organiser, said: “Ten years ago everyone wanted to be a DJ but now bands such as the Darkness have brought showmanship back to rock. I’m seeing a lot more kids walking to school with guitar bags on their back. Young guitarists want to learn to play like Hendrix, and of course it remains an excellent way to impress girls.”

The guitar revival is not just toys for boys. Daisy Rock guitars, a range designed specifically for girls and endorsed by stars including Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles, are also selling strongly.

Parents are getting noisy too. Paul McManus, chief executive of the Music Industries Association (MIA), which represents instrument suppliers, said: “There are the ‘Harley-Davidson players’. Dads who have paid the mortgage, the kids have left home and they want to start playing again. Some are learning for the first time.”

Instruments are more affordable now than at any stage, with a basic guitar and amplifier combination available for less than £150. Supply has exceeded demand and the MIA is discussing with ministers how to counter a music teacher shortage. The Academy of Contemporary Music, in Guildford, Surrey, is training 700 students to diploma level in guitar, vocal, drum and production techniques.

Virgin stores claim 25 per cent of the sheet music sales market but, like CDs, this is an industry vulnerable to internet piracy. The web is full of sites offering free notation guides to classics from the Beatles songbook to Radiohead’s Anyone Can Play Guitar.

Publishers have countered by producing glossy books with pictures and liner notes to make them as appealing to fans as the old-style 12in vinyl album sleeve.

The notion that guitars are this year’s fashion accessory has been promoted by Busted, the current pop sensations. The trio are always pictured thrashing guitars and boast of their proficiency.

“Reality” television pop shows may have actually helped the guitar revival. Mr McManus said: “Pop Idol may have produced a lot of rubbish but it has got a generation interested in music and some of them will turn to instruments if they want to become stars.”

Weekly sheet music sales were the touchstone of popular taste until November 14, 1952, when the New Musical Express compiled the first list of 78rpm record sales after calling 53 stores. Most music stores boast a well-thumbed copy of Queen’s Greatest Hits, and the Darkness, with their ability to construct musically sophisticated yet commercial rock anthems, are tipped to build a similar canon.

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