Back again, and this time with one of the most emotional tracks ever made if you ask me! I’m talking about ‘Children’ by the super talented musician Robert Miles. This very track was driven by a highly emotional story…
It was a day in 1994 never to forget. Robert had just returned from playing a DJ set. As he sat there in his personal soundproofed bunker somewere in Italy in the early hours, he felt compelled to begin to work on what was to become ‘Children’. That same day his father had returned from a humanitarian mission to the ex-Yugoslavia, bringing pictures of child victims of war. His immediate and honest emotional response to the pictures of children caught up in so much devastation was to be a life-changing moment for Robert in many ways. After much hard work and a number of initial stumbles he had for the first time ‘found’ himself as a genuine composer.
And so was he to find out the first time he aired the track in public:
“I was anxious to see how people would take to this piece. The following Sunday morning I opened my DJ set with ‘Children’, feeling both scared and excited… the DJ just before me had ended with a very heavy piece. To break the existing mood with a melodic tune and a long intro could have simply cleared the floor. The people in front of me stopped in their tracks, their eyes fixed to the console almost in annoyance. I felt my blood run cold and I remember lowering my eyes in fear. The record reached its soaring climax. From the floor came a thunderous noise… I lifted my gaze and saw a sea of hands reaching up high and a smile stamped on every face. A girl approached me in tears. “What music is this?” she asked me. I don’t think I shall ever forget that moment, when I realized that my feelings had been conveyed through my music. My dream turned into reality.”
From there, the track steadily built from the underground, tempting DJs and club audiences around the world one by one. When the track first arrived as a single in the UK, Radio 1 refused to play it, as it was an instrumental and moreover a ‘Dance’ instrumental. Rather an ironic turn of events for an ex-radio DJ… Only in 1996, when pressure from the UK club scene became overwhelming, did ‘Children’ finally make the playlist and explode into the national consciousness. It became a global phenomenon in the truest sense. The track reached the number one postion in 18 countries, selling a staggering 5 million copies worldwide.
