Philip was born in Rugby in Warwickshire in 1961.  He moved with his family to Norfolk in 1973, and almost immediately joined the "learners group" of the Dereham Band, as in those dark days of the last century, there was no such thing as the Youth Band.

During the intervening years, he has played almost exclusively with the Dereham Band, but also with the Drayton Band, the Wind Band of the University of Birmingham and the Shirley Band, in the West Midlands, as well as his own school band at Swaffham Secondary modern.  At one stage, with all of them at once!  Philip says he is mainly a cornet player, but has played "anything with valves" from soprano cornet to BB flat tuba.

Philip has been married  for sixteen years and has one son, and has lived in Norfolk exclusively since qualifying as a dental surgeon in 1984.