OBITUARY ACKER BILK

                    

With his goatee beard, bowler hat and striped waistcoat, Acker Bilk was one of the most recognisable musicians of the post-war British trad jazz boom.

His 1961 record, the haunting Stranger on the Shore, was in the charts for more than 50 weeks and made him an international star.

You will recall that He attributed his unique style of playing to the fact he had lost part of a finger while out sledging, as well as losing two front teeth during a school playground fight.
Bernard Stanley Bilk was born in Pensford, Somerset, in January 1929, the son of a Methodist lay preacher. His mother played the organ in the local chapel.  He died on 2 November 2014 aged 85 after a lengthy illness.
After a spell working at the Wills tobacco factory in Bristol, he went off to do his National Service in Egypt where he learned to play the clarinet and formed a band known as the Original Egyptian Stompers.