Acker Bilk Portrait

This portrait of Clarinettist Bernard ‘Acker’ Bilk was painted by Kay Whittaker. Click the button at the bottom of this page to learn more about the artist.

Acker Bilk was, with Kenny Ball and Chris Barber, one of the three longest-surviving stars of the Trad Boom. Acker’s 1961 hit ‘Stranger on the Shore’ stayed on the British charts for fifty-five weeks and is still often heard today, as well as a later hit ‘Aria’  which charted in Britain in 1976 long after rock music had conquered popular culture. With his Paramount Jazz Band from 1957, Acker played the 100 Club on countless occasions and also toured internationally until very shortly before his death in 2014.