Youth

The post-war years
January 1950 Ciro Perrino is born in Sanremo Italy five years after the end of World War II. Sanremo is located on the Ligurian coast in North Italy which is known as the Italian Riviera. In Liguria there are still clear signs of the war despite the fact that it has not been bombarded extensively. Everyone wants to end that period of loss, pain and sorrow and make a new start.

First introduction to music
His father is a bank clerk, his mother is housewife and his maternal grandparents live with them.
In his third year he is already listening to the radio and he sings the then hits of the radio with enthusiasm.
When he is four years old, he gets a drum set. Initially he is not interested in this. A few years later he is only playing drums.
He gets the music with the spoon.
His maternal grandfather is a young musician at an early age and plays eight wind instruments.
This grandfather comes from a very large family where everyone plays different instruments. His grandfather knows all the operas of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini it by heart. He often sings them for the young Ciro.
Ciro listens to different kinds of music such as folk music, classical music, operas and big bands. His paternal grandfather plays in such a band bass drum.
Almost all his family has musical aspirations. So does the brother of his grandfather, who is conductor.

Playing music yourself
Early in his life he experiences the healing power of music when his dentist lets listen him to Beethoven while he is being treated.
With his parents he looks at musicals and films in which a film about the Life of Glenn Miller with James Stewart in the leading role fascinates him. That music conquers his heart.
At school he has a good music teacher who tells him that he is the best music pupil of the school.
At that time he has private music lessons.
It starts with drumming and then enters the piano. He specialises in flute and oboe.
At one point he takes his piano lessons together with lessons in conducting.

Introduction to pop music
He still remembers the first single he bought, a single from The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man.
He is listening to almost all the music from the sixties and buys a whole collection of long play records from 1964 to the Seventies, including many groups from British rock such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, Kinks and Small face. Later a lot of music follows from the U.S.A.
The album Aftermath of the English Rolling Stones and in particular the song Think evoke strong desires to dedicate his life to the music and to become a professional musician.

The young generation
The sixties are the years of a new generation with ideals and ambitions. This generation wants to put their ideals and ideas into practice, including music.
His generation has the chance to experience many new live music and to discover other music, such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Doors, Procol Harum, Cream and many progressive rock bands.
The whole world speaks the same musical language, which is amazing.

The first bands
The first bands in which he plays, mainly bring a repertoire of English and sometimes American covers.
Seventeen years old he plays in a group called the Love which actually has up to 1969 the same members.
They play a lot in dancings, night clubs, at carnivals and parties, at least three to four times a week, usually during the weekend.