Florian Pilkington-Miksa was born in 1950 into an extremely wealthy family in Roehampton. The family home was described variously as "palatial" and "baronial," complete with two-and-a-half acres of tended rose gardens and apple orchards. The house sported a ballroom, which Curved Air occasionally used as a rehearsal facility in the early days.

Florian took up playing the drums at the age of ten and was given lessons to further his abilities. He attended and graduated from the exclusive Eton College. This left little time for drum practice, although he set up his kit whenever he returned home on holiday.

Following school, he seriously considered entering into the British military, feeling the discipline would be beneficial. "A friend of mine started to make arrangements for me to go into the 11th Hussars and I went down to stay at his place in the country. But I was turned down, on security grounds I think, because my father is Polish. The case was taken up on my behalf, but by the time the Ministry of Defence had changed their minds, I'd decided to try something different! So while we were staying down there, a group of us started playing together, and we formed our own group, Sisyphus. This developed over a period of weeks into Curved Air."

Florian remained with Curved Air for the first three albums and returned to perform on the 1974 reunion tour and the 1990 reunion gigs. Following the first breakup of the band, he joined Kiki Dee's band, both recording and touring.

Although reticent to comment on his percussive abilities, progressive music aficionados know his drumming to be extraordinary. His work on "Vivaldi," "Everdance," "Propositions," and the entire "Live" and "Alive, 1990" albums places him in the same category with Bruford, Collins, Pyle, and Wyatt.

Florian is an extremely private person, and has always kept a low profile. Since the 1990 reunion, he has surfaced only in 1991 to play on the soon-to-be-released "Jam" CD with Francis and Rob Martin. Friends have said he spends most of his time privately, devoted to his art and music.