Person Open DS/UK/10830 Bilk; Acker (28 January 1929-2 November 2014); MBE; English clarinetist and vocalist Bilk Acker 28 January 1929-2 November 2014 English clarinetist and vocalist Male (cisgender) Bernard Stanley Bilk Pensford, Somerset, England (born)

British Music | Clarinet, Vocals White No known disability No known religious affiliation Heterosexual Acker Bilk was an English clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat. Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune "Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962. It spent more than 50 weeks on the UK charts, peaking at number two, and was the second No. 1 single in the United States by a British artist. On leaving school Bilk joined the workforce of W.D. & H.O. Wills's cigarette factory in Bristol; he stayed there for three years, putting tobacco in the cooling room and then pushing tobacco through a blower. He then undertook three years of National Service with the Royal Engineers in the Suez Canal Zone. He learned the clarinet there after his sapper friend, John A. Britten, gave him one bought at a bazaar and for which Britten had no use. The clarinet had no reed, so Britten fashioned a makeshift one for the instrument from scrap wood. Bilk later borrowed a better instrument from the army and kept it after demobilisation. Bilk played with friends on the Bristol jazz circuit and in 1951 moved to London to play with Ken Colyer's band. Bilk formed his own band called the Chew Valley Jazzmen, later the Bristol Paramount Jazz Band. Bilk was not an internationally known musician until 1962, when the experimental use of a string ensemble on one of his albums and the inclusion of a composition of his own as its keynote piece won him an audience outside the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acker_Bilk (2023) International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes RAHSkeyte 12/31/2013 RAHAKirkbride 7/6/2023 9967007b-7e34-4aa0-aaa8-c970455d308b