Before the Beatles was Bilk

I heard on Sounds of the Sixties this morning that Acker Bilk will be eighty next week *and he's still touring*. What is it with these old jazzmen, like Humphrey Lyttelton? You'd think all that puffing and blowing in clubs for years would be bad for the health but they seem to go on and on.

It's hard to believe now how hugely popular traditional jazz was in the UK in the early 1960s. I saw (Chris) Barber, (Kenny) Ball and Bilk in the film It’s Trad, Dad! with Helen Shapiro and John Leyton. Why is this never on television? I'd love to see it again. Bilk's biggest hit was not jazz at all, but the theme tune Stranger on the Shore for a BBC drama series which even made No.1 in the US. I find it very evocative of its period. Aaaah!