Acker Bilk ...
Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) Bernard Stanley Bilk was born in Pensford in his beloved County of Somerset. Before becoming a world famous musician he had a go at working in a tobacco factory plus amateur boxing. He married his childhood sweetheart Jean. Whilst in the Royal Engineers in the Canal Zone, he borrowed a military clarinet and began copying recordings of famous jazz musicians. When demobbed, he formed his first band in Bristol, then moved to London and joined The Ken Colyer Jazz Band. But, Acker hated London so returned to Somerset and formed the Bristol Paramount Jazz Band. They got their first break playing for six weeks in Germany. Once more Back in London the hits began – ‘Summer Set’ and ‘Creole Jazz’, then in 1961 he wrote a tune for his daughter entitled ‘Jenny’ which was taken up as the theme tune for a BBC series and the name was changed to “Stranger on the Shore” which was a worldwide hit and the rest is h