Dave Viney was born at a very early age of humble Huguenot stock in Brighton on the south coast of England. His parents had no musical training but his mother enjoyed singing and there was always music playing at home from as early as Dave can remember: During the day, his mother cooked to the radio BBC Light Programme (the pop music of the day) and his father read books in the evenings to an assortment of classical and jazz records.

At infant school, Dave remembers the various percussion instruments that were available during the first year to make a noise during 'music' lessons and, thanks to a very dedicated and patient teacher, Dave was introduced to the recorder at the age of 6 or thereabouts and became an accomplished exponent of both descant and tenor versions by the end of junior school including playing in inter-school competitions; his first experience of public performance: Dave still remembers the haunting melody of 'Silent Worship', a favourite tune from those early days. During that time, Saturday mornings were dedicated to listening to 'Uncle Macs Childrens Favourites' on the 'BBC Light (radio) Programme' (who could ever forget Burl Ives singing the Big Rock Candy Mountain!) and, through other radio programmes and the records, Dave was enthralled by the variety and excitement of the music around him and his musical future was almost certainly primed by these influences.

At senior school, Dave took the opportunity to learn to play the clarinet, taught by a retired head flautist of the Halle orchestra and played in the school orchestra as well as a youth orchestra run by his teacher: Again, Dave was accumulating experience of public performance and will never forget the terrifying experience of having play the solo in the second movement of Schuberts unfinished symphony when the first clarinettist went sick just before the performance!

Dave also joined the local Boy Scout band to play the bugle culminating in more public performances at youth band competitions where the band became national champions. Somewhere in this pubescent melee of musical pursuit, Dave discovered his love of singing which was initially restricted to school choir concerts and school music competitions but realised the first signs of commercial success at Christmases when singing carols door to door, both for personal gain and for charity: This was a watershed in both the realisation that music was a skill that 'ordinary' people would pay money for (or to get rid of!) and that it was a skill that could be used to help others less fortunate. Dave also made early stage appearances at holiday camp entertainment evenings while on family holidays and in Boy Scout 'gang' shows (public performances of musical and other variety acts).

At home, he had discovered his uncles collection (given to Daves father) of records including a range of classical music but also modern jazz (a very new experience!), flamenco and Irish folk music: Dave can still whistle (another rather annoying talent!) the melodies from some of these records as they have very close associations with the turbulent emotions of his early adolescent years. Although never formally trained in music theory, Dave was inspired by another schoolteacher who had a passion for classical music to teach himself the basics of musical structure and composition (including music 'concrete', the synthesised music of the day) from library books and will never forget his pilgrimage to one of the then current exponents (Peter Zinofiev?) at the ICA in London where Dave whistled the first line of the national anthem into a computer which then composed a complete 'etude' based on it including multiple harmonies and full orchestration.

However, do not be lured into the impression that Dave was following an entirely classical direction! Sunday afternoons were spent recording (on paper) the top 20 popular records from Alan Freemans 'Pick of the Pops' on the 'BBC Light (radio) Programme' and Saturday mornings were now often spent playing air guitar to the 'Shadows' latest hit.

Daves exposure to live music of others making was limited in these early years to occasional treats to concerts at the Brighton hippodrome by popular acts of the day including the Shadows, Family and Winifred Attwell!

Daves first record purchase was 'Orange Blossom Special' by the 'Spotniks' (Swedish?); a 'Shadows on Speed' departure from the run-of-the-mill pop records of the day which appealed to Daves other preoccupation with making electronic devices for sound production and modification including the spectreuphon; an early version of a sound to light unit which was constructed for an inter-school competition.

As adolescence took a stranglehold on Daves attention and interests, making music took a holiday though listening to it became ever more an important part of his life as it became closely associated with the traumas of these turbulent years: At university, Dave was spoilt by the opportunity to see many top groups of the day including the Who and Pink Floyd at the Saturday night student union 'hops'. During the summer holidays, Dave attended some of the early pop festivals including the Plumpton blues festival.

Dave became very popular in his hall of residence by having a music system that allowed records to be heard in stereo including his packed room for the inaugural playing of the Who's 'Tommy': He had also acquired a (reel-to-reel) tape recorder which he used to copy friends records; a skill which was to be exploited later in life.

On leaving university, Dave took out a bank loan to buy some 'hi-fi' equipment including a state-of-the-art (reel-to-reel) tape recorder which he still has to this day: Dave spent much of his leisure time listening to friends records and copying them! It was while living at a YWCA (I kid you not!) in Manchester that Dave was introduced to wide range of rock music including Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heap, Hawkwind and Focus; a genre which remains at the heart of Daves love of music.

Several years then passed without any memorable musical events until Dave joined a light operatic society (the Philbeach twinned with a similar group in the Greenwich Village) culminating in his public performance as Earl Tolloler in Gilbert and Sullivans Iolanthe: Dave later joined a choir which performed a range of classical music where he further developed his tenor voice.

Having rediscovered a school friend who had composed pop/blues songs in his youth and wanted to record them for posterity, Dave teamed up for a typical attic room 4-track recording setup to sing, engineer and produce songs which after migration to a more sophisticated home recording studio resulted in an 'album' (Just A Breeze) which can be heard on peoplesound.com (search for artist 'Vain').

In fact, Daves recording studio came about as a result of meeting Rob (the other Retro) who needed help to install his first studio which Dave subsequently replicated in his own house: This was the start of a musical partnership which consisted initially of joint compositions of dance music and recording songs that Rob had previously composed while playing in various bands. Many a night (and early morning) was spent creating the latest masterpiece, few of which were ever completed!

Another joint project with Rob was a 'scratch' band based on work colleagues which performed for charity at office Christmas parties and similar events: the bass player (JBT) also played with Rob in a function band (the Self Righteous Brothers) which Dave joined for a while until it took another direction.

While Rob spent some time in Australia, Dave and JBT became close friends and spent evenings seeking out local live music and operating his 'PA' system (used for the SRBs) for local jazz groups and bands whom they had started to patronise.

The trauma that then beset Dave and Rob was the inspiration for the Retros: At the tender age of 40, JBT succumbed to liver cancer and on Robs return from Australia (via France), the decision to play in his memory was made and rehearsals started. The Retros first public performance was at a private friends party and, several years and over 100 gigs later, many thousands of pounds has been raised for CLIC Sargent.