The very beginnings of the band were in the summer of 2002, when drummer Andriy Buniak and guitarist Stef
Mandzij started jamming together during tabir (Ukrainian Youth Camp). At first, the guys just messed around
with English tunes they knew, before being encouraged to play Ukrainian music by Stepan Pasicznyk (aka Ludwig)
when he came to visit for a couple of days. After dabbling in a few uki tunes in the following days at tabir, the
guys were asked to join Ludwig in playing a kind of informal 'mini-zabava' at one of the weekends, with a couple
of the girls as singers. Ludwig gave our loose ensemble the name b2 (myakiy znak dva). The zabava was a great
learning experience for Andriy and Stef, who messed around and experimented with the music, of which they had
little knowledge.
After tabir, Andriy and Stef didn't make plans to continue playing together in any real way,
accepting that living in different cities caused them problems in this respect. However,
interest in forming a band revived when the guys heard that a good friend of theirs from
Bolton, Mish Hrycaj, was starting to play the bass towards the end of 2002. Stef and Mish
made plans to jam together a few times, and had a go at playing some Ukrainian music together.
By the next spring, the three guys arranged to play together in Bolton. They crammed themselves and their gear
into a tiny attic in the uki club on a scorching April day and had a go at playing a few tunes. The guys were surprised
at how well they initially gelled, and although the whole band idea was just a bit of fun, there was exciting prospects
of continuing playing uki stuff together.