Phil was born in Glazebrook, a small village about 12 miles west of Manchester on the 24th September 1950. As there was no school in Glazebrook, he attended Cadishead Infant School from 1955 until 1958 and then Cadishead Junior School from 1958 until 1962.

If the 11-plus had been a musical exam, he may well have passed and attended the Grammar School at Urmston - as did his older sister - but it wasn't, he didn't and of the alternative options offered, Woolston Secondary Modern became his high school and he took his GCE "O" levels in 1967.

Based on the philosophy that if the teachers made the subject matter interesting, he would retain the information and all homework and revision generally (a very few exceptions) went out of the window. Despite already working as a musician on the local club scene three years before the GCE exams and little more than biding his time to leaving school, he did well in the GCE and CSE exams after all - to some people's surprise.

In 1973, 4 generations of his family, his grandparents - who were 85 years of age, his mother (widowed - Phil's dad died at 41 when he was only 5), his sister, her husband and young family - plus he and his wife, moved to North Wales, living for 16 years in Rhos-on-Sea and Upper Colwyn Bay.

Phil moved to Sussex in 1989 and virtually abandoned music for many years, feeling that all the experience that he had gained appeared to have achieved "sod tout" and turned instead to his second ongoing string to his bow - driving coaches. Something he had wanted to do for years and in 1987, while still working for (then) Clwyd County Social Services, had paid for his own tuition and passed his Class One PSV test.

In early 2005, returning from a rare visit to North Wales, he and his wife decided to move back to the Rhos-on-Sea area and he now lives about a mile from his former home there.