The way things are going, it may not be long before music colleges start offering courses in advanced busking.

It was singing to bystanders in Covent Garden that launched the careers of the Opera Babes. Now, the violin-playing twosome of Craig Owen and Greg Scott, better known as Duel, also credit their time spent busking in towns across northern England with giving them their first vital professional break.

Greg and Craig were studying the violin at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music, and were delighted to find an easy way of raising some extra cash to boost their meagre student incomes.

"We were putting together some demo tapes to send off to record companies, so we were busking to make some quick easy money," Greg explains.

"We learned how to get a crowd and keep them there, and got some great response."

"We played in all the spa towns in the north, Chester, Harrogate, and St Anne's Square in Manchester," adds Craig. "Greg and I used to go with each other but we'd play individually as well. But it was when we played together that the crowds really built up."

One day in Manchester, one of the faces in the crowd belonged to Pete Waterman.

Although Waterman has built his reputation on selling chartbusting singles to teenagers, it's a lesser-known fact that he also has a passionate enthusiasm for classical music, from Vivaldi to Wagner.

When he heard classical violin music wafting across St Anne's square, his antennae began to twitch.

"It's not that unusual to hear buskers playing classical music, but I thought what's that crowd doing there?" Waterman remembers. "Then I realised the guys playing were two good-looking young boys. So in some ways classical music is no different from pop."

It was only natural that Craig and Greg should have felt some mild apprehension when Water-man first approached them.

TV viewers have nicknamed him 'Poison Pete', because he doesn't shrink from delivering blisteringly forthright opinions.

"The first thing he asked us was "do you love classical music?" And our reponse was "yes"." Greg: "We thought it was a trick question. But he was great.

"I think we played him some of the Bach double violin concerto and Danny Boy, and he just sat there agog."

Pete then embarked on finding management for the boys and a record deal.

A record deal with influential classical label, Decca, stable to Bond, Russell Watson and Andrea Bocelli, soon followed.

Greg and Craig have been steeped in music from an early age and can list a string of classical accomplishments. Craig has been leader of the Young Northern Sinfonia and the Vacation Chamber Orchestra, has been a member of the Spencer Quartet, and visited Beirut with the RNCM Sinfonia to perform at the Al-Bustan International Music Festival.

Greg attended Chetham's School of Music, toured with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and won the Cowen Prize for violin during his first year at the Royal Northern College of Music.

He continues to perform with the BBC Philharmonic.

Nigel Kennedy is one of their favourite violinists because, as Greg puts it, "he's playing from his heart." From the poppier end of the scale, they give credit to Vanessa-Mae and all-girl quartet Bond "because they're great entertainers and music is entertainment."