Acker Bilk

[BlackadderV]

Just noticed that the above has died at the age of 85. Another musical legend from my childhood gone.

[chaptazbru2]

Loved Stranger on the Shore.

[grasscarp]

I wrote in to BBC radio Children's Hour in response to request for children to say what is their favourite type of music. I wrote in and said Clarinet and particularly Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore.
They invited me up to Broadcasting House to talk about this. The producer selected me for a series called Young Critics and my name was in Radio Times! I so like the experience that I joined the BBC on leaving school and stayed there for ten years.
Interestingly when I read an obituary about Acker it said he started playing the clarinet when he was in the Royal Engineers based in the Canal Zone. Quite coincidentally I was also out in the Canal Zone at the time of the Suez Crisis with my family as my father was also in the Royal Engineers.

RIP Acker.

[Mamyalynne]

Lovely story Grasscarp,and a special memory too.


RIP Acker.

[grasscarp]

Thank you Mamyalynne. I can honestly say that without Acker Bilks lovely record my life would have taken a different direction.