Yamaha teamed up with Rockhopper at the London International Music Show at the prestigious ExCeL in London's Docklands for a very special project where the Rockhopper formed the centrepiece of the Yamaha exhibition stand. The Rockhopper was fully branded with a specially designed "Yamaha Download" livery. During the event, the Rockhopper crew recorded audio features, podcasts amd interviews with, amongst others, Richard Allinson from Radio 2, Marco Mendoza of Whitesnake, and members of Jamiroquai, as well as hosting the Yamaha "Band for a Grand" competition.

For this promotion, bands recorded a song, using Yamaha's budget range of guitars, drums, basses and keyboards, in the Rockhopper, the object being to show that top flight bands could sound great using instruments which cost less than £1,000. And sound great they did! The finished tracks were mixed and uploaded to the "Yamaha Download" site where members of the public voted for the best acts. The bands thoroughly enjoyed the experience and some great music was made. The Rockhopper certainly made an impact at ExCeL and, accorfing to Yamaha staff, was the high spot of the exhibition.