Stillyano

Stillyano are a 4 piece rock band from the south west of England.

Formed by myself, lead singer / guitarist, Antony Stylianou in 2003.

My Story :

I began playing at the age of 11. I learnt my first chords from a hymn book and have been self taught ever since. My main influences have been Angus Young (ACDC), Richie Sambora and Brian May.

My first gig was at my school assembly when i was 12. I soon put a band together and was playing the pubs at the age of 13. We won the Devon Battle of the Bands competition shortly afterwards and that got us on local radio with my first original song called Human Puppet.

With the same band I was signed to a small indie label called Poor Persons Productions when i was 16. The lead singer at the time was older than me and always called me his favourite guitarist. Sadly he died just before our first launch gig.
After a long pause, I started playing with bands again and doing more session work. I played mainly with a Queen tribute band for about six years. This gave me more experience of playing to larger venues and audiences around the country. It was great playing such great music to those audiences, but it wasn't exactly what i wanted to be doing, which was writing and performing music of my own creation. I went back to the beginning and back to what I first set out to do . In 2003 I formed Stillyano.

Stillyano are :

Antony Stylianou - Lead vocals / Guitar
Richi Morey - Bass
Dan Jones - Keys
Andy Swinburn - Drums

Passion for the music has kept us together, working hard whenever and wherever we can for seven years now. We have played from pubs and clubs to larger events and the Queen Fan Club Convention, with audiences of around 2000 people. We have steadily gained a loyal fan base around the country just through sheer grit and passion in our shows.

I think what sets us apart from other bands is not only the passion and energy when performing but the strength of the songs alone. We have found over the years that our music appeals to many different audiences and age groups and we always receive positive feedback after our shows.

We won a local Battle of the Bands competition in 2007 and went on to take part in a national competition where we came 3rd out of 250 bands. That year we also won a competition to be the opening band for Party in the Park in Exeter and last year we were given a main slot at Party on the Green in Paignton that same year.

We have briefly worked with an award winning producer called Simon Henderson who produced Silly Fools and other bands from Thailand. Simon is currently in talks with people about getting us some kind of recording deal. He keeps saying we must visualise it and it will happen, so i did more than ever and wrote a song called The Real Thing which was his favourite and said that was the missing track. I remain hopeful that one day even now our turn will eventually come.