Acker Bilk

Acker Bilk0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Acker Bilk0:08

Uh

Presenter0:08

Where were you born, Agger?

Presenter0:10

In Somerset, a place called Pensford. Acker isn't your real Christian name, is it? Oh no, no. Um Acker is a Somerset nickname. There's quite a few Ackers down there, you know. Means what? It's like um oh Wacker, mate, my old Ack, you know.

Presenter0:26

What was your first job when you left school? My first job when I left school was in um a tobacco factory in Bristol actually. Yes. Had three years there. Then what went wrong with it?

Acker Bilk0:33

That's right.

Presenter0:36

Well, um it was uh a factory like I said and I've come from Penceford and I wanted to get out in some fresh air so I left and got a

Presenter0:44

Got a job on the buildings, you know. Mhm. Out in the fresh air all day.

Acker Bilk0:48

Uh Uh

Presenter0:48

Has music played any part in your life so far? Not really. Not really. I used to like the radio and and listening to the

Presenter0:56

you know, the bigger bands like uh

Presenter0:59

What can you say? Glenn Miller was very one of my favourites there. But you didn't play an instrument? I didn't play, I don't know. Where did your interest start?

Presenter1:07

Well, I first seen a clownet when I went in the army. This was in um in Egypt. I went to Egypt and there was a clownet knocking about the tents there, which I

Presenter1:15

Commandeered.

Presenter1:17

and sort of had a blow on every now and again and got new notes out and had myself a big ball, you know. Then you settled down to learn it?

Presenter1:25

Well, I'm still trying to learn it now, but um we we sat down with a band, there was quite a few other people out there, I was very lucky, who were interested in jazz and music.

Presenter1:34

And there was a piano player, a very good piano player. We we scraped a band together, you know, in Egypt.

Acker Bilk1:36

We

Presenter1:39

And when you came back to civilian life? Um well I couldn't really do without the the clarinet and the music, so I brought it home.

Presenter1:47

and formed a band in Pentsford. Oh no, it was semi-professional. I was working in quarries and things and blacksmithing. I've done quite a few things.

Presenter1:57

When did you take the plunge and decide you were going to be a full time musician?

Presenter2:01

Well, I had an offer from Ken Collier.

Presenter2:03

in London. He was short of a clarinetist and he asked me to join and I went up and joined him.

Presenter2:08

In London. What happened then?

Presenter2:11

Well, I didn't stay with Ken too long. Roy had to leave because my mother was ill in Somerset. Dave, my brother, was in the RAF.

Presenter2:19

He couldn't get away and his sister was at school so somebody had to go down there.

Acker Bilk2:22

Yeah.

Presenter2:23

So back to blacksmithing and quarrying? Oh no, I didn't go back to blacksmithing. I went on a dam, worked on a dam and uh in a sawmill. And in the meantime I was still I had the band again, still playing in the evenings, you know.

Acker Bilk2:36

Yeah.

Presenter2:36

How long before you came back to London?

Presenter2:39

Um about two and a half years, I think. And this time you brought your band with you? Well three of them. Three of them came up with me. The rest didn't want to know about London.

Presenter2:48

Did the bookings roll in straight away? No, they didn't. Uh let's put it this way, they rolled out. We were

Presenter2:54

You know, potato soup for about six months. I believe the whole band lived together for a while. We were in an attic, yeah. We lived together in an attic. What was the turning point?

Presenter3:02

We had an offer from Germany.

Presenter3:04

to play in the beer bar in in Dussendorf and we had uh seven hours a night there. Seven hours.

Presenter3:10

Yeah, for two months this lasted.

Presenter3:13

It sounds a lot but it was very good for the band. We we whipped ourselves into shape, you know.

Presenter3:18

Had you started the the striped waistcoats and

Acker Bilk3:20

The bola hapt unit.

Presenter3:22

Before we had? Oh no, that that was after we came back from Germany.

Presenter3:25

The agent uh

Presenter3:27

Got hold of a publicity man called Peter Leslie. He said, This band sounds good. I'd like to put some publicity out.

Presenter3:34

And the idea of uniforms and I suggested a waistcoat'cause they're cool to play in and he suggested bowler hats and spats and everything. But we didn't get that far. But we finished with bowlers and waistcoats.

Acker Bilk3:44

This yours was really the first band to do the curious clothes bit. I think so.

Presenter3:49

Yeah.

Acker Bilk3:49

Really a throwback to the twenties when all the big American bands were dressed as Eskimo and Northwest Mounted Police and all that sort of thing.

Presenter3:53

Well yeah it was

Acker Bilk3:55

Yeah.

Acker Bilk3:56

Aka, if you don't find that the clothes

Acker Bilk3:58

Uh make people lose respect for the music. I mean, with the with the clowning around, they can still take the music.

Presenter4:03

Seriously? I think they do, Roy, because I think it's um essentially uh happy music as far as I'm concerned and I don't see any reason why you shouldn't look happy playing it and and and appear happy, you know?

Presenter4:15

I was the pattern.

Acker Bilk4:15

Not at the moment, Egger. You're on the crest of a wave. That means one night stands every night. Oh, yeah.

Presenter4:21

Really since Germany we've done one nice dance, six years, you know.

Acker Bilk4:24

How far afield?

Presenter4:26

Oh, um, Zurich, Scunthorpe, uh I remember one I remember one job we had, we ran a

Presenter4:33

On the riverboat shuffle at on the Mersey and the next day we were appearing in Oslo.

Acker Bilk4:37

Yeah.

Presenter4:38

Well

Acker Bilk4:38

Uh

Presenter4:39

Yeah.

Acker Bilk4:39

as well, of course, as recordings and broadcasts and filmings.

Acker Bilk4:42

Um the pressure is on. Do you think you can take the pressure more or less indefinitely?

Presenter4:48

Well, I don't know, Roy. That depends on the future. You never really know. Let's put it this way, the pressure have been fine up to now, and I think we can afford these days to cut it down a little bit, you know. I think everything's fine. You've just had a big success in the United States. Oh, yeah, we just got back from New York. And uh, Stranger on the Shore, you know, that one who um you know it.

Presenter5:08

Yeah, well

Acker Bilk5:08

So, yeah.

Presenter5:10

That was a lot of the success, you know, I went to number one and everybody knows me over there.

Acker Bilk5:11

What a

Acker Bilk5:14

Yeah.

Presenter5:15

What is your public? What what's the age group of your public?

Presenter5:18

Well it varies. I should think the majority would be in their late teens or early twenties. But we get um quite a lot of younger people and quite a lot of older people suppress.

Acker Bilk5:27

Surprisingly enough.

Acker Bilk5:29

What percentage of in in these one night stands are concerts and dances?

Acker Bilk5:35

I should think about seventy five

Presenter5:37

Five percent concerts and the rest dances.

Presenter5:40

What's for the future, any particular big ambition?

Presenter5:44

Not really. I've I never had an ambition, you know. I just like to carry on and keep things swinging and play as much as I can and

Presenter5:51

Get some sleep now and again, you know.

Acker Bilk5:53

Yeah.

Presenter5:54

Uh

Acker Bilk5:54

Hacker, we haven't talked about the composing side of your career. Um there's one item in particular Uh Stranger on the Shore.

Presenter6:04

Actually as long as I can remember. Yeah, actually he's been in the top fifty for about a year. Really?

Presenter6:09

Um I wrote that for a string album.

Presenter6:12

for America, with strings, you know. And I call it Jenny.

Presenter6:16

at the time and nothing happened about it, just led in the United States doing nothing.

Acker Bilk6:20

Jenny off to your little girl.

Presenter6:21

That's right, my little girl, yeah.

Presenter6:23

And a BBC producer asked me to write a number for the series called Stranger on the Shore, which I did. Well, heard the record, it was already recorded, we used it.

Presenter6:32

Had a lot of letters in and people liked it and they issued it as a single over here which done very well.

Presenter6:38

In the meantime, the United States was saying, well, we record Acker as well. Why don't we get Stranger on the Shore? But they already had it on this album under the title of Jenny.

Presenter6:48

Are there any more coming up?

Presenter6:50

I've done a couple more, Roy, for another album, incidentally, which um

Presenter6:55

I think people are there'd probably be issuing it. I don't know.