3rd Cornet – Phil Silvio
Phil’s banding career covers two periods, one in younger life and now in older life with a 24-year gap in-between. He started learning the trumpet at the age of 13 and had lessons with Geoff Mason in Portsmouth. He was the Flugel player in Portsmouth City Band and also the musical director of the junior band and quickly got Phil involved in banding.
At the age of 16, Phil moved back to Cornwall and was encouraged to join St Erth band where he became principal cornet and liked the village band feeling. In 1990, Phil moved to Hayle Town Band and played on the front row enjoying success at a number of different contests. This lasted for 9 years when he gave up playing for good – or so he thought.
During the Covid pandemic, Phil started listening to bands again and by chance he was asked by a friend if he would like to have a blow with Lanner Band as a number of old Hayle players were playing there. In August 2021, Phil started with Lanner and he is enjoying playing again.
Conductors Phil has played under include Geoff Mason (Portsmouth Junior Band), Harry Rowe (Portsmouth City), Idris Stone (St Erth Band), John Sharman, Leon Johnson, Dereck Johnson, and WAB Tressider (Hayle Town Band).
Phil has had lots of good times in banding, but his favourite banding memory was when he was 15 and was introduced to Schnapps while touring Germany with Portsmouth City Band. Needless to say alcohol and banding certainly do mix.
