Porcupine Tree was born in 1987 as a psychedelic, experimental, and progressive music outlet for the home studio explorations of Steven Wilson. In fact, Wilson had already been making music for several years, as a musically precocious teenager who taught himself to play guitar and keyboards, and whose early tape releases with bands such as Altamont and Karma had already become known in the London musical underground (these tapes, which included early versions of later PT tracks like "Nine Cats," "Small Fish," and "This Long Silence," would eventually become highly-valued collectables, a circumstance Wilson describes as "a bit like a painter having his nursery school blots exhibited".
In 1987, Wilson started two projects that would take him into the professional music world. The first was the art-rock trio NO-MAN (www.no-man.co.uk), formed with singer Tim Bowness and violinist Ben Coleman (NO-MAN still exists today with a string of albums to their name). But the second began life almost as a joke between two friends: Steven and his friend Malcolm Stocks developed an almost entirely fictional history of a legendary seventies group, complete with non-existent band members and an absurd discography - this was The Porcupine Tree. To back up the story, Steven recorded several hours worth of music supposedly by this imaginary band. This was all done as pure self-indulgence, but by early 1989, Steven rated some of the music highly enough to compile a cassette, entitled "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm," and sent out copies to people that he felt might be interested. One of them went to the underground UK magazine Freakbeat, run by Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman. Unknown to Steven at the time, they were in the process of setting up their own record company. Despite the fact that they gave the tape a rather lukewarm review in the magazine, they invited Porcupine Tree to contribute a track to their first release, a compilation album of the best underground psychedelic groups.
This was ultimately to take another 18 months or so to come to fruition, and in the meantime Steven began to distribute Porcupine Tree's music in the form of "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm" and it's follow up, "The Nostalgia Factory," both complete with booklets containing the imaginary history and other misleading information. These tapes built up an underground interest in the name which was added to by the eventual release of the newly named Delerium record label's first compilation album, "A Psychedelic Psauna," which featured the Porcupine Tree track "Linton Samuel Dawson." Delerium also reissued the first two Porcupine Tree tapes. Shortly afterwards, Steven was invited by the new label to be one of the first artists to sign to the Delerium label. The original invitation was to reissue both the tapes as double albums, but Steven decided instead to compile the best material onto one double album which became "On the Sunday of Life...", the third release on the new label (most of the remainder of the music from the original eventually emerged on another limited edition album entitled "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape"). "On the Sunday of Life..." was issued in early 1992 in a small run of 1000 copies in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. Such was the interest from the press and public that this small run sold out almost immediately and was repressed along with a CD version. Among other tracks the album contained a future Porcupine Tree classic and frequent concert encore in "Radioactive Toy." By 2000, "On the Sunday of Life..." had racked up sales of over 20,000 copies.
While this was happening, Steven's other group NO-MAN had signed a record deal with One Little Indian (home of Bjork among others) and were beginning to release records to an ecstatic press response. NO-MAN allowed Steven to become a full-time professional musician, and enabled him to dedicate even more time to his "side project." The first Porcupine Tree album had been a self-indulgent and in some ways nostalgic look back at Steven's favourite music from the 60's and 70's, but he felt that in order to take the project forward it was important to develop the sound into new and more contemporary areas. The first fruits of these new sessions was a 30 minute single that fused the ambient trance of acts like The Orb and Future Sound of London, with liquid rock guitar soloing, strung together with a narrative taken from sixties LSD propaganda LPs. It was a major underground hit, reaching the UK independent Top 20 and a perfect representation of how the dissolution of boundaries between genres characterised the best music of the nineties.
In fact "Voyage 34" was a track recorded for another prospective Porcupine Tree double album "Up the Downstair." However, when the album eventually emerged in mid-1993 the decision not to include the single had slimmed down the album to a single record. "Up the Downstair" was greeted with rapture, Melody Maker describing it as "a psychedelic masterpiece.... one of the albums of the year." The album continued the fusion of dance and rock and also featured guest appearances from two future full-time Porcupine Tree members, Richard Barbieri (ex-80�s art roclk band Japan) and Colin Edwin.
In November 1993, "Voyage 34" was reissued alongside an additional 12 inch remix by Astralasia. With non-existent radio play it still managed to enter the NME indie chart for six weeks and became an underground chill-out classic.
The profile of Porcupine Tree had now grown to the extent that the question of live performances could no longer be ignored. Thus, in December 1993, Porcupine Tree became a live unit featuring Steven, Colin Edwin (bass), Chris Maitland (drums), and Richard Barbieri (keyboards). All three new members of the group had worked with Steven on various projects over the preceding years and all were excellent musicians sympathetic to the sound and direction of Porcupine Tree. The new line up had an immediate chemistry as illustrated by the "Spiral Circus" album (issued on vinyl in 1996) which contained recordings from their first ever 3 performances, including a BBC Radio One session for Mark Radcliffe, an early champion of the group.
New music was already underway. The next album would not emerge until early 1995, but was preceded by the classic single "Stars Die / Moonloop," the last 2 tracks to be recorded during the album sessions and the first to feature the new band. The subsequent album, "The Sky Moves Sideways," was as expansive soundscape of melody and ambient rock experimentation, but would prove to be a transitional work with half recorded before the formation of the band and half recorded after. Most of the album was taken up with the 35 minute title track, which at one point Steven intended to be long enough to occupy the whole album (an alternate version of the track, containing some of the excised music, was included on the 2004 remastered version of the album). It also entered the NME, Melody Maker, and Music Week charts. Together with the "Moonloop" EP, this album became the first Porcupine Tree music to be issued in America in the autumn of 1995, and attracted favourable press on both sides of the Atlantic. The band supported the album with numerous gigs throughout the year at major venues in the UK, The Netherlands, Italy, and Greece.
Partly unsatisfied with the half band/half solo nature of "The Sky Moves Sideways," Porcupine Tree promptly got down to the task of recording the first proper band record and worked sporadically over the next year on developing a tighter and more ambitious rock sound.
May 1996 saw the release of the first fruits of these sessions, the single "Waiting," which entered all UK indie charts and the UK National chart attracting airplay all over Europe. It was followed by "Signify," the first album to fully reflect the powerful live sound of the band, blending together numerous rock and avant-garde styles, while absorbing many diverse influences but relying on none. A large amount of major European media interest accompanied the album's release, as Porcupine Tree has now become a highly respected force in the musical underground. "Signify" is regarded by the band (and many fans) as one of their finest works. The band went on to complete a highly successful European tour.
Porcupine Tree continued to increase in popularity abroad during 1997 and in March played to an audience of over 5,000 in Rome over three nights - all of which were recorded for the 1997 live album "Coma Divine.� This album was released as a goodbye to Delerium Records, which felt it could no longer offer the kind of resources the band needed in order to continue to build its profile worldwide. In late 1997, the band's first three albums were remastered and reissued. "Signify" also saw a release in the US on Miles Copeland's ARK 21 label.
Steven, Richard, Colin, and Chris spent all of 1998 recording their fifth studio album, a release that reflected the band's move towards a more song orientated sound. At the time of recording, the band had no record deal, but later that year they signed to the Snapper/K-Scope label and in March of 1999, the album "Stupid Dream" was issued, supported by a lengthy tour of the UK, Italy, Greece, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, and the USA. The three singles taken from the album - "Piano Lessons," "Stranger By the Minute," and "Pure Narcotic" - all achieved mainstream exposure in the US and in Europe and appeared well placed in the UK independent charts and on radio station playlists. Although initially the album was such a departure that some older fans were unsure, it brought the band many new fans and went on to become the band's best selling and most acclaimed release to date.
The time spent looking for a record deal had not been wasted and only a few months after the release of "Stupid Dream," the band were ready to begin work on a follow up, recorded during the transition into the new millennium and completed in February 2000. With string arrangements provided by Dave Gregory of XTC, "Lightbulb Sun" built on the mix of songwriting, soundscaping, and rock dynamics of "Stupid Dream," but developed it into something altogether more intense and organic, a band confidently in control of their sound. The album was released in May, 2000, preceded by the single "Four Chords That Made a Million." A sold out show at the Scala in London began a short run of UK shows, to be followed later in the year by European festival dates and a major tour supporting Dream Theater.
The band continued to tour through the end of 2000 and the start of 2001, including their first major tour of Germany. A special double CD edition of the Lightbulb Sun album was issued in Israel and Germany, and in May, "Recordings," a limited edition collection of EP tracks and out-takes from the previous two albums, was released as the band's final release under their Snapper/KScope contract. In June 2001 the band played a short US tour, culminating in a sold out show at the Bottom Line in New York City. Shortly afterwards Porcupine Tree announced that they had signed a new international record deal with Lava/Atlantic Records.
In February 2002 Porcupine Tree's first ever line-up change occurred when drummer Chris Maitland departed after eight years with the band. The band welcomed extraordinary drummer and long term acquaintance Gavin Harrison to the line-up.
In March, as a major retrospective box set of the band's early work, "Stars Die - the Delerium Years 1991-97" was released, the band commenced recording their first major label album, drawing from a pool of 30 new songs written by Steven in the previous two years. Sessions took place in New York and London, with veteran engineer Paul Northfield (Rush, Ozzy Osbourne, Hole) and string arranger Dave Gregory also playing major roles in the making of the record. Mixing of the new album was completed in LA in May with Tim Palmer.
The eagerly awaited new album, "In Absentia," was released by Lava Records in September 2002 (European release Jan 2003). It was the band's most accomplished and complete work to date, featuring a much heavier sound on some tracks, but also some of the band's most beautiful and fragile works. The album received great praise worldwide and went on to become the band's best selling album shifting over 100,000 copies in it's first year of release, and charting in several European countries. The band also released a 5.1 surround sound version of the album, mixed by legendary Grammy award winning producer Elliot Scheiner, which went on to win the award for best 5.1 mix at the 2004 Surround Sound Music awards in LA. To promote the album the band undertook four tours of Europe and North America, including one with acclaimed Swedish metal band Opeth. On tour the new line up of the band was further augmented by additional touring vocalist/guitarist John Wesley.
During these tours the visual element of the band's performance was taken to new heights with the involvement of filmmaker and photographer Lasse Hoile, who created a dark and surreal visual counterpoint to the PT's music. The long promotional campaign for In Absentia ended on November 30th as the band played a homecoming show to a sold out London Astoria.
During 2003, Porcupine Tree also set up their own label and on-line store. The first release on the Transmission label was a studio session recorded for XM Radio, Washington, followed in 2004 by a recording from Polish radio in 2001. The band plan to use the label to issue a series of well recorded and packaged live and exclusive studio recordings.
2003 also saw the start of a lengthy reissue / remaster campaign, with many of the early albums expanded to double CDs. These reissues included a rerecorded / remixed version of the "Up the Downstair" album, and the reissue of "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun" on Lava/Atlantic.
In early 2004 the band embarked on the recording sessions for an ambitious new Porcupine Tree album, "Deadwing", their second for Lava/Atlantic. The album takes it's inspiration from a film script (and hopefully later a film) written by Steven with his filmmaker friend Mike Bennion. With the album sessions completed in November 2004, and the band's total worldwide sales now approaching half a million units, demand for new music from the band was at an all time high, and increasing media coverage, word of mouth and fan-power continued to create interest in Porcupine Tree on a massive scale throughout the world.
"Deadwing" was released in Europe and the US during the spring of 2005 as both a stereo and 5.1 surround sound album, preceded by the release of 2 singles, "Shallow" in the US, and "Lazarus" in Europe. The tour to promote the album commenced in the UK at the end of March, and continued throughout the year.
There is a special microsite decicated to Deadwing here (www.deadwing.com).
Since then, two major label album releases, 'In Absentia' and 'Deadwing,' have augmented the band's renown. Heavier than previous releases, the albums have found favor with older fans and introduced Porcupine Tree to a whole new audience. The band also firmly established itself as being on the cutting edge in the audiophile/surround world: in 2004 and 2005, In Absentia and Deadwing were respectively released as 5.1 DVD-Audio editions by DTS Entertainment, and each won the Surround Music Award for Best Surround Mix in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
In late 2005, Porcupine Tree re-signed to Atlantic Records for the US, but moved to the highly successful independent rock label Roadrunner for Europe.
In September, 2006, Porcupine Tree released its first DVD, the live "Arriving Somewhere...," filmed in Chicago during the Deadwing world tour. The DVD was critically acclaimed for both its visual quality, as well as the 5.1 mix: reviewing the DVD, Sound and Vision magazine concluded, "When it comes to surround sound, Porcupine Tree is in a league by itself."
In December 2006, recording commenced on the band's ninth studio album. The album, Fear of a Blank Planet, is the band's most ambitious and cohesive work to date. Much of it was debuted last November to enthusiastic fan response on Porcupine Tree's sold-out U.S. and European tours in support of the release of "Arriving Somewhere...." The album title is a reference to the lyrical content of the song-cycle on the album: a 21st century cocktail of MTV, sex, prescription drugs, video games, the internet, terminal boredom, and subsequent escape.
In April, 2007, the band embarked on a six-month world tour in support of "Fear of a Blank Planet," one that included Europe, the US, Japan, and Australia. The new album will be featured, and the show will feature the films and projections by the band's long-time visualist Lasse Hoile.
On 5 November 2007, Fear of a Blank Planet won the Album of the Year award for the 2007 Classic Rock magazine awards.[42] In December 2007, it was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Surround Sound Album" though Love by The Beatles won the award.The album was voted "Best Album of 2007" by readers of the Dutch Progressive Rock Page.
A new EP called Nil Recurring was released on 17 September 2007, featuring four unreleased tracks from the Fear of a Blank Planet sessions and including another contribution from Robert Fripp. The second leg of the tour started on 3 October 2007, now promoting new music from the EP. Nil Recurring entered the UK Top 30 Independent Label Albums at number eight. The EP was reissued on 18 February 2008 through Peaceville Records.
A recording from a 4 October 2007 in-store, mostly acoustic, performance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida, was released on 18 February 2008 on CD under the name of We Lost The Skyline. The title is a reference to the lyrics of "The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One)," which was the opening song on the live set. The album was released on vinyl of March 21, 2008. While intended to be a full-band show, the lack of space in the store only allowed the two guitarists, Wilson and John Wesley, to play.
The Incident
The band played a short European tour in October 2008 to shoot their second live-concert film, Anesthetize. The filming took place on 15 and 16 of October in the Netherlands at the 013 Tilburg venue. During one of these shows, Wilson mentioned that Porcupine Tree had started work on material for their next album, with an eye toward a release in 2009. The live-concert film on DVD and Blu-Ray was released on 20 May 2010.
The band started recording their tenth studio album, The Incident, in February 2009. This was confirmed by the band, stating, "Writing for the next PT studio record is well underway, with the band recently spending two weeks scheduled in the English countryside working on new tracks. Recording of these pieces and a new 35-minute SW song cycle were due to start in February..."Months later, Wilson commented the 35-minute song kept evolving and now it has become a 55-minute song, occupying the entire disc.
On 12 June 2009, details were revealed on the Porcupine Tree website, "the record is set to be released via Roadrunner Records worldwide on 21 September, as a double CD. The centrepiece is the title track, which takes up the whole of the first disc. The 55-minute work is described as a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that ‘after this, things will never be the same again.’ The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December – Flicker, Bonnie The Cat, Black Dahlia, and Remember Me Lover feature on a separate EP-length disc to stress their independence from the song cycle." The album was the band's biggest commercial success to date, reaching number 23 in the UK album charts and also reaching the US Billboard Top 25.
The band also released another live album, Atlanta, in June 2010. The performance was actually recorded during the tour of Fear of a Blank Planet at the Roxy theatre, Atlanta, on 29 October 2007. It was released via online distribution only, with all the sale proceeds donated to Mick Karn for his treatment against cancer.
After finishing the touring cycle for The Incident in 2010, Wilson spent the rest of the year, and 2011, recording and releasing his second solo album, Grace for Drowning, and Blackfield's third album, Welcome to my DNA. Initially, the band had mentioned the possibility of working on new music in 2012, with Wilson mentioning "early 2012", and Harrison guessing they would start work in 2012 and release music in 2013. However, this soon changed, with Wilson announcing that he would continue to focus his future on his solo career. This new focus included a second leg of touring in support of Grace for Drowning in the first half of 2012, recording a third solo album in the second half of the year with his touring band, releasing it in early 2013, and then touring in support of the third solo album for "much of the year" – throughout 2013. Wilson still maintained that the band "haven’t split up" and that there are "no intentions of splitting up",[59] but he also said there were no specific plans for a new album either.[60] While he said that he still "want(s) to get Porcupine Tree back together at some point", he said that he was not sure what direction he wants to take the band, only that he is "tired of metal music", and that one member of the band does not like jazz, so it won't go into the direction of his solo project either.
In June 2012, Wilson re-emphasised his continued focus on his solo career, with his answer to the question "...is (there) a danger that Porcupine Tree might fall by the wayside?" being, "The honest answer is I don’t know. The solo career for me now is probably the most important. I think about it more than anything else, I’m more focused on it than anything else, I enjoy it more than anything else..." A two-disc live album titled Octane Twisted was released that following November by their record label, Kscope, containing a live recording of The Incident in its entirety, from material recorded at 2010 concerts at the Riviera Theater, Chicago, and the Royal Albert Hall. In May 2013, Wilson reiterated his stance on the band's status, stating that it's "...not to say the band has broken up or anything like that. It’s always conceivable that we could get back together in a year or five years, or 10 years. I really can’t say – there are no plans at the moment." Edwin's stance mirrored this.
After Wilson released his third solo album, The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) in February 2013, and toured in support of it for the remainder of the year, its success led Wilson to commit to writing and recording a fourth solo album Hand. Cannot. Erase. over the course of 2014 and releasing it in 2015, pushing hypothetical work with Porcupine Tree into at least 2016. In March 2015, Wilson commented, “if Porcupine Tree [were] to get back together—and, by the way, I have never ruled that out—it will be a side project. There should be no question in anyone's mind that this is now my main musical path, my solo work.”[65]
Moving into 2016, Wilson's views on a reformation were conflicting. In February 2016, in an interview with Prog Magazine, he stated that there was a "strong possibility" of Porcupine Tree reforming for another studio album at an undisclosed time in the future. However, in response to a question in August 2016 regarding a hypothetical Porcupine Tree performance, Wilson claimed, "you'd be waiting for a long time, that band doesn't exist anymore." In August 2017, Wilson explained: "It's no coincidence that since my solo project has taken off, other collaborations have receded to the background. Porcupine Tree hasn't made a record since 2009 and No-Man hasn't made a record since 2008. I feel less need now to be creatively involved in something other than my solo work. My solo work fulfills the musical needs I have now.
In a March 2018 interview when asked about the chances of further activity from Porcupine Tree he responded; "Honestly, I would say zero, because I’m just not that kind of person. I don’t go backwards. I’m not interested in going backwards; I want to move forwards, I want to do different things, I want to work with different people, I want to explore different kinds of music. That would seem like a terribly backward step to me. I’m proud of the catalogue; it’s there, it exists, but it’s kind of closed, it’s finished."
Updates courtesy of the PT Wiki Page
DISCOGRAPHY:
*Studio albums
On the Sunday of Life... (1992)
Up the Downstair (1993)
The Sky Moves Sideways (1995)
Signify (1996)
Stupid Dream (1999)
Lightbulb Sun (2000)
In Absentia (2002)
Deadwing (2005)
Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
The Incident (2009)
DVDs
* Arriving Somewhere (September 2006)
EPs / Singles
* Voyage 34 (1992)
* Voyage 34: Remixes (1993)
* Staircase Infinities (1994)
* Moonloop EP (1994)
* Waiting (1996)
* Piano Lessons (1999)
* Stranger by the Minute (1999)
* Pure Narcotic (1999)
* Four Chords That Made a Million (2000)
* Shesmovedon (2000)
* Lazarus (2005)
* Nil Recurring (2007)
Limited editions
* Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (1989)
* Love, Death & Mussolini (1990)
* The Nostalgia Factory (1990)
* Spiral Circus - Live (1993)
* Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape (1994)
* Insignificance (1997)
* Coma Divine II (1999)
* Stars Die - Rare and Unreleased (1999)
* Tonefloating : The Use of Ashes vs Steven Wilson (2000)
* Transmission IV (2001)
* XM (2003)
* Warszawa (2004)
* Porcupine Tree Sampler 2005 (2005)
* XM II (2005)
