CHILD – A Short History

 

Cast your mind back to the closing years of the 1970s, when girls were girlie and guys wore trousers so tight, little was left to the imagination! If you were a teenage girl in those days, then you probably bought one or more of the many weekly teen magazines that lined the shelves of every newsagent in Britain. If so, then you would have found gazing from the pages, four of the most gorgeous guys around, Tim Atack, Graham Bilbrough, Keith Atack and Mike McKenzie…….better known as CHILD.

 

In the beginning there was Tim. Tim played the drums from a very early age. One day when he was about 12 years old, Tim and his friend Graham, who played guitar and sang rather well, decided to form a band. Soon David, a friend of Graham’s who played guitar, joined them and then of course came Tim’s multi talented brother Keith.  The years past by and a lot of hard work and dedication was put in by the guys. They were doing lots of gigs in their native Yorkshire. They were writing their own material, perfecting their playing and acquiring a thriving following of adoring fans!   When they left school they decided to turn professional and hooked up with manager Mike Devere.

 

Child’s first single, a cover of Alex Harvey’s ‘River of Love’ was released in 1976 on the London based BUK label. They followed this with ‘Maybe Baby Someday’, also on BUK. In 1977 they released ‘What’s a nice girl like you’ on Pentagon Records.  In the same year they released an album, in West Germany only, it appears. The album was simply titled ‘Child’.  None of these records met with any success. 

 

Early in 1978 a defining event occurred.  David Cooper left the band to be replaced by Mike Mckenzie on bass guitar and the line up which we all know and love was born.  Mike was already known to some teen pop fans, as he had previously toured with Pat McGlynn’s ‘Scottie’. The change was quickly followed by a record deal being clinched with West German label Ariola Hansa (see also Boney M, Les McKeown and Japan).  Their first single was ‘When You Walk In The Room’ a Jackie De Shannon classic, which had been a number 5 UK hit for The Searchers in the 1960s.  It spent 5 weeks in the UK charts, peaking at number 38.  The follow up single, Conway Twitty’s 1958 composition ‘It’s Only Make Believe’, spent 12 weeks in the UK charts and reached number 10, earning the guys a silver disc.  In the same year, the band’s first UK album was released.  ‘CHILD The First Album’ was a combination of more covers and some self-penned songs.  It includes a pleasing rendition of Billy Fury’s 1959 hit ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ and compositions by both Tim Atack and Mike McKenzie.  It earned the band another silver disc. 

 

As the end of 1978 approached, another single, the beautiful ‘Still The One’ was released.  It unfortunately failed to chart. The following year saw the last of the band’s chart success.  Their single, a former UK hit for the Platters, ‘Only You’ reached number 33 and remained in the UK charts for 5 weeks.  The same year saw the release of their second long player ‘Total Recall’. Also during 1979 the band received the great honour of being appointed Official Ambassadors to the UK fund-raising branch of the United Nations, as the year was designated International Year Of The Child.

 

During the height of their success Child appeared on many TV shows including; Seaside Special, The Basil Brush Show, Multicoloured Swap-Shop, Tizwas, Saturday Banana, Lyn’s Look-In, Jim’ll Fix It, Chegger's Plays Pop, Breakers, Get it Together, The Arrows, and of course Top Of The Pops.

 

The band called it a day in 1980.

 

And then…

 

Keith and Tim, now performing under the name of ‘Atack’, signed with Limo Records (see also Rosetta Stone). They released two singles, ‘Don’t You Believe in Magic’ in 1981, and ‘Don’t Wind Me Up’ in 1982. Later in the 80’s the twins toured with 5 Star and recorded under the name of ‘The Duel’ with ‘There’s a Living to be Made’ released April 1988.

 

The 1980s also saw Tim beginning to write more of his own music, while touring as a keyboard player with acts like David Cassidy, Oleta Adams and Bryan Ferry. He became musical director for and toured with Des’ree, and co-wrote her hit ‘Kissing You’. The song went on to be a major stepping stone for him, as it was picked up by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann and used in his 1996 hit movie ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Tim has since gone on to write musical scores for many films and television programmes including some for the BBC and Channel 4. His most recent work of note includes film scores for Ricky Gervais’ films ‘The Invention of Lying’ and ‘Cemetery Junction’ the latter of which earned him a cameo role as a band member in the scene at the social club.

 

Keith is currently performing with rock band 'Never the Bride' and is also a member of Bonnie Tyler’s band. Until recently, he was a long time member of the best Eagles tribute band around ‘The Illegal Eagles’.  He has toured with Bonnie for many years and also toured with David Cassidy. He has composed musical scores for film, numerous television programmes and advertisements. He also appears in a cameo alongside Tim in ‘Cemetery Junction’. Keith released an excellent instrumental solo album ‘Perfect Ten’ on Wingtip Records in 2005.  He has also recently collaborated on an album tribute to Robin Trower's (Procol Harum) 'Bridge of Sighs', with proceeds from the album going to the Marie Curie charity.

Keith has a facebook page.

 

Graham still records and performs in the Wakefield/Pontefract area under the name of Ricky Graham. He worked for many years as a successful promoter in Yorkshire. He has a number of videos on youtube, both as Graham Bilbrough and Ricky Graham.

 

After Child split, Mike returned to touring with Pat McGlynn for a while. He is still in the music business.  He has recently been performing with a ‘Blondie’ tribute band, and Eagles tribute band 'Hotel California'.  Mike has a facebook page.

 

David Cooper currently plays with Yorkshire based covers band ‘CoAst’. David and CoAst both have facebook pages.

 

 

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