Dave Bilbrough

He grew up in Romford, Essex, where he still lives. At the age of 14 he accepted an invitation to attend church. He valued the questions posed by some of Paul Simon’s songs, and even more the evangelistic challenge at the church’s youth group, becoming a Christian a year later. He learnt to play guitar, and encouraged by Nick Butterworth began to write new songs, especially since the 1970s, which could break the traditional mould. An early composition was Abba, Father (1975) which enjoyed great popularity. His wife Pat is a percussionist. He became a major contributor to the words and music of the annual Spring Harvest collections, especially in the 1990s (11 items in the 1999 selection), played a leading role in ‘Revival Now’ conferences and has appeared several times on ‘Songs of Praise’ and other TV programmes. He began recording in 1991, the year he became a music leader with Chris Bowater and Noel Richards; he has travelled internationally, conducted seminars, written 3 books and some 200 songs