Decades spent performing in smoky bars and clubs are thought to have led to the death of a talented Bournemouth musician who played in bands with Robert Fripp and Gordon Haskell.

Family and friends gathered on Thursday to pay poignant tributes to guitarist, singer and composer Tino Licinio, who lost his fight for life on November 18, at the age of 65, after developing lung cancer.

His widow Barbara, 57, from Christchurch Road said: “Tino was a musician through and through. He was still singing and playing with his band Lucky until October 4.

“Tino was the most wonderful, loyal husband; we were best friends, confidantes and soulmates. I miss him desperately.”

Beauty therapist Barbara and Tino met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1975. “We were total opposites but just hit it off. Tino made no secret of his love for music and said he had little time for girlfriends.”

But the couple married on October 3, 1981, at the Immanuel United Reformed Church in Southbourne, where Tino’s funeral was held on Thursday.

Born in Parkstone, Tino attended Poole Grammar School. His passion for music was inherited from his late father Olivio, an Italian opera singer and leading light in local operatic societies.

His sister Nina Licinio recalled how Tino’s first guitar had arrived in kit form and been assembled, with the help of a school friend, in their sitting room.

She said: “There were always aspiring musicians passing through our house, including Robert Fripp and Gordon Haskell, with practice sessions in Tino’s loft bedroom.”

Tino played with Wimborne group The Ravens in his late teens before joining The League of Gentlemen with Fripp and Haskell.

When he met his future wife, Tino was a member of Bridgwater-based King Harry and had just signed a record deal with EMI. But his big break and dreams of success came to an abrupt end when the band broke up.

After moving back to Bournemouth, Tino played with local bands until just weeks before his death at Poole hospital.

Looking back on her husband’s impressive musical career, Barbara told the Daily Echo: “Tino was never in the right place at the right time; such a waste of wonderful talent.

“He wasn’t a heavy smoker but he had sang in smoky pubs and clubs, six nights a week, and I think that contributed to the terrible disease which eventually took him away from us.”

Barbara was with her husband when he passed away. She said: “In his last days he told me he loved me and never thought we’d be parted in this way. He said I should enjoy my life for him; I can only try.”