'Viola Beach taught us we should dare to dream'
BBCThe father of a member of a band killed in a car accident as they toured Sweden has spoken about the group's legacy, 10 years on from their deaths.
Ben Dunne, father of River Reeves, told BBC Radio Manchester his son and his Viola Beach bandmates had "dared to dream" and continued to inspire others to.
Reeves, Jack Dakin and Kris Leonard, all aged 19, Thomas Lowe, 27, and their manager Craig Tarry, 33, all died in a car crash outside Stockholm in Sweden in February 2016.
Dunne said he had initially been worried about his son's plans to give up his university place and join a band, but Reeves had reminded him of the "dare to dream" sign he had put outside the school where he worked.
"Like a lot of people who have lost loved ones, their memory never fades and it feels like yesterday he was here charging about, you know, being River, so it's a poignant day," said Dunne.
He said River was due to go to Manchester Metropolitan University to study drama but told him and stepmother Sharon he wanted to join a band instead.
"Like a lot of parents you think, crikey, no way, Riv, absolutely no way," said Dunne.
He said he told his son he should not join a band as "it's not going to go anywhere".
"And he said, 'But dad, we are going to do amazing things, we've got a great album that is going to go to number one'."
Reeves also reminded his father of the "dare to dream" sign he had put up outside the school where he was a headteacher at the time.
"I can remember him saying to me, like a lot of teenage boys, 'You are such a hypocrite dad, you've got this great big dare to dream sign outside the school and yet your own son wants to go and live his dream'," he added.
He said he and Sharon made up their minds that they would support Reeves in following his dream after he came back from a recording session and played the band's song, Boys That Sing, on his phone on the kitchen worktop.
Dunne said: "That was it. I thought, 'Blimey, dare to dream Riv, go and do it'.
"And of course that's what he and the lads did. And what a legacy they have left us."
The band's posthumously released and self-titled debut album got to number one six months after their death.
The proud father said his son had also inspired him to set up a charity to get more young people rowing.
He said his son's voice saying "Just go and do it, dad" had been in his head when, in 2016, he and a fellow founder of the charity from Warrington Rowing Club "hatched a plan".
"The initial inspiration came from River and those lads in Viola Beach, daring to dream and live out their aspirations," he said.
The All Aboard Youth Rowing charity now has clubs across the north west, including Warrington, Runcorn, Northwich and Liverpool, with around 45 schools now involved.
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