press articles- uk music papers

The Iron Curtain posed no difficulties for a pop group formed by four young men from Weston-super-Mare.
They have just returned from a four week tour of Bulgaria - a tour in which they played almost 30 concerts to audiences of anything up to 4,000 people.

The group are the Baloons - Des Henly (21) lead guitar and vocals, Mario Ferrari (21) bass guitar and vocals, Sean Mayes (22) piano and vocals, and Barry Pike (19) drums.
Playing in the open air at stadiums throughout Bulgaria, they performed before a total audience of around the 50,000-mark.

"They listenet quietly to each number an then roared their applause at the end. There was no screaming in the middle or anything like that," said spokesman Sean. No one tried to tear off clothing for souvenirs either.

Although on occasions the group had to beat a hasty retreat to avoid handshakes and backslapping from he odd thousand fans. "Often when we were playin someone would bring flowers on to the stage so that by the end of a concert we were completely surrounded with bouquets," Sean added.
Now they have returned for a series of appearances at clubs and ballrooms along the South Coast. But they will be the other side of the curtain again in September. This time for a similar stint in Hungary.
All of which is a very promising start for a group formed only last October. Des and Mario played formerly with The Iveys, and joined forces with Sean and Barry when that group broke up. The latter were members of the Soul Benders group before the four joined forces.