BRIAN'S STORY
Dunav consists of some musically-trained people who can read music, and others who are self-taught. I number myself among the latter. Our family was not musically inclined except for my father, who played the piano at parties and liked Chopin. There was a guitar in the loft, probably without strings, but it may have created a yearning to play guitar later on.
In my early teans, the time of the trad jazz boom and skiffle groups, I finally got my guitar and learnt, along with many thousands of other young people, the three chords you needed to play skiffle music. later I developed an interest in mondern jazz and classical music. A major turning point came during the folk revival when I found in a record shop a Peggy Seeger LP of songs from the Appalachian mountains, real American folk music.
While I was at college I planned to go to a folk music club at Hendon College. I was warned that there could be some dancing too, but that I was not to worry about that! It was run by Henry Morris, a charismatic character who brought great enthusiasm to whatever he did. After a while my two left feet turned into a left and a right, and eventually the folk dancing took over from songs as my main interest.
There was a lot of talent about when Henry was forming the Dunav Balkan Group, and I was among their first 'groupies'. We went abroad and learned more about Balkan folk music and its special place in people's lives. We were really hooked by then. I was in the right place at the right time when there was a vacancy for a guitarist in 1970. It has been a great pleasure playing ever since.