NEIL Buchanan inspired thousands of children to get creative in the nineties on his hugely popular show Art Attack – and he looks unrecognisable these days.
In 1990, Neil’s Art Attack encouraged thousands of British children to get crafty, with the show running for a whopping 17 years.
The CITV show, which encouraged children to draw, paint and paper mache until their heart’s content, was so popular that it won a BAFTA TV Award.
But after the much-loved show came to an end in 2007, presenter Neil decided to carve out a very different career path.
The former kids’ TV host ditched his colourful red sweatshirt and stowed away his PVA glue to concentrate on his first passion – music.
Neil, now 65, spent time rocking out with his heavy metal band, Marseille.
The eccentric TV star formed the rock group in his native Liverpool in 1976.
They released several albums and singles and supported the likes of Judas Priest, Nazareth, Whitesnake and UFO on tour.
However, Neil, who is dad to Freddie and Molly, quit the band in the early Eighties and became a TV regular.
In September 2020, a conspiracy theory claiming that Neil was the secretive UK street artist Banksy went viral.
Banksy’s identity has famously remained unknown to the public.
A new theory has been proposed that he is, in fact, the former Art Attack host Buchanan.
The rumour began to circulate in early September when a Twitter user suggested it was “rumoured” that Buchanan was in fact the mind behind artworks like Balloon Girl and Love is in the Bin.
Neil issued an unequivocal denial of the rumour he is Banksy on his website.
The statement reads: “We have been inundated with enquiries over the weekend regarding the current social media story.
“Unfortunately this website does not have the infrastructure to answer all these enquiries individually, however, we can confirm that there is no truth in the rumour whatsoever.”
