Bob Bernard received his musical training during a nine-year stint in the Shropshire Light Infantry Military Band. He went on to play in various clubs in London's West End before moving to Kent and becoming resident band leader at The Ashes restaurant in New Ash Green. The Ashes was packing them in for dining and dancing, with the Bob Bernard Quartet playing four nights a week; Bob on Hammond organ and flute and the restaurant manager Colin Bourner on guitar, who had once scored a few hits with the early 60s band The Barons. Diners at The Ashes soon began asking if any recordings of the quartet were available and a friend called Eric Radcliffe, then a tutor at Goldsmiths College and who would subsequently join the quartet for live appearances, offered Bob some time at his newly assembled recording studio. In 1975 the owner of The Ashes restaurant kindly put up the money to produce a record and the "At The Ashes" album was laid down in one long session on Eric's four-track recording studio in the cellar of his house. |
