Two of the most talented performers in British Jazz, Humphrey Lyttelton and his Band and Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band, will share the bill at Fairfield Concert Hall.

Acker Bilk MBE received another honour this month when he was honoured with the degree of Master of Arts at Bristol University. His trademark bowler hat and striped waistcoat have been part of his image for most of his enduring career.

Acker was born in the village of Pensford in Somerset and was christened Bernard Stanley Bilk. As a child he was taught to play the piano but did not like sacrificing practice time for football and poaching! He attributes his instantly recognisable style of clarinet playing to two childhood mishaps a schoolboy fight knocked out his two front teeth and he lost half a finger in a sledging accident.

Acker started playing clarinet in 1948 when he was in the Royal Engineers in the Canal zone where he borrowed a military clarinet. He was sent to military prison for sleeping on guard duty, which gave him hours to practise while in a cell awaiting court martial. Demobbed, Acker formed his first band in Bristol then came to London as a clarinet player with Ken Colyer's Band.

But he didn't like London in the 50s and returned to the West Country forming the Bristol Paramount Jazz Band which he still has with him.

Acker's biggest success came in 1962 with a ballad originally entitled Jenny, after his daughter. It was hijacked by a BBC producer to be the theme music for a TV serial called Stranger on the Shore and renamed accordingly.

It was top of the hit parade in the UK for weeks and one of the few singles ever to be number one, simultaneously in the UK and the US. It has sold over four million copies and has been played on air over four million times.

Stranger on the Shore is now enjoying renewed popularity as the theme tune for the Whiskas cat food television advert.

Many people ask where the name Acker derives. It's a Somerset name for friend or mate, perfect for this band leader whose wicked sense of humour and friendliness warms him to all and has earned him legions of devoted fans.

Band leader and star of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and BBC Radio 2's Best of Jazz, Humphrey Lyttelton is descended from a long line of land-owning, political, military, clerical, scholastic and literary forebears not a musician among them. He claims to have most in common with a former Humphrey Lyttelton, who was executed for complicity with Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot.

Humph was born in Eton College where his father was a famous housemaster, and where he was subsequently educated. During the war, he served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards after being demobbed studied for two years at Camberwell Arts School.

He formed his first jazz band in 1948, after spending a year with George Webb's Dixielanders, a band which pioneered New Orleans-style jazz in Britain. Humphrey Lyttelton and His Band soon became the leading traditional jazz band in Britain, progressing to be one of the most highly acclaimed jazz outfits internationally.

l Humphrey Lyttelton and Acker Bilk Fairfield Saturday, July 30, 8pm £16.50, £15.50 020 8688 9291