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PORCUPINE TREE BAND PAGE
 PORCUPINE TREE
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CURRENT NAME
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Porcupine Tree | |
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FORMER NAMES
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- | |
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ORIGIN
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London, England, United Kingdom | |
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STATUS
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Active | |
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FORMED IN
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1987 | |
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LABEL
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Roadrunner Records | |
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GENRE
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Progressive rock | |
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STYLE
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LYRICAL THEME
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| BAND ADDED | 2005-04-04, 00:00 | |
| LAST UPDATE | 2009-05-14, 09:33 | |
Biography | Band members | Discography | Shows | Videos | Forum
| Band biography |
In 1987 Wilson started the 2 projects that would take him into the professional music world. The first of these was an art-rock trio NO-MAN formed with singer Tim Bowness and violinist Ben Coleman. But the second began life almost as a joke between two friends. SW and his friend Malcom 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 "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 th! e 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 2 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 3rd release on the new label (most of the rem! ainder of the music from the original eventually emerged on the "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape" album). "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 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 and The Shamen among others) and were beginning to release records to an ecstatic press response. It was NO-MAN that allowed Steven to give up his day job in the computer industry and become a full time professional musician and therefore dedicate even more time to his "side project". As the first Porcupine Tree album had been very much a self indulgent and in some ways nostalgic look back at Steven's favourite music from the 60's and 70's he felt 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 Orb (then the biggest thing in music) and liquid rock guitar soloing, all 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 repr! esentation 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-Japan) and Colin Edwin.
In November of 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 in addition to 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 only in 1996) which contained recordings from their first ever 3 performances, including a BBC Radio One session for Mark Radcliffe, who was 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 ! 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 very 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 Netherland! s, 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 whilst absorbing many diverse influences and relying on none. A large amount of major European Press followed the release, with the UK's Q magazine describing "Signify", as "a powerful album". 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 who felt they could no longer offer the kind of resources the band needed in order to continue to build their profile worldwide (however Richard Allen from Delerium continues to be involved in the day to day running of the band with his company Big Brother Management). In late 1997 the band's first three albums were remastered and reissued. "Signify" also saw a release in the USA 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 international 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 3 singles taken from the album - "Piano Lessons", "Stranger By the Minute" and "Pure Narcotic" - all achieved mainstream exposure in the USA 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 band ended 1999 with a sold out show at the Scala in London.
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 on May 22nd 2000, preceded by the single "Four Chords That Made a Million". Another 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, taking in Israel for the first time, as well as 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 occurs when drummer Chris Maitland leaves after 8 years with the band. The band welcomes new 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" is released. At the same time the band commence recording their first major label album, drawing from a pool of 30 new songs written by Steven in the previous 2 years. Sessions take 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 is completed in LA in May with Tim Palmer. The new line up of the band is further augmented by additional touring vocalist/guitarist John Wesley for a short pre-album release US tour in July 2002. Many venues are sold out and the shows are received rapturously by both old and new fans alike.
The eagerly awaited new album "In Absentia" is released by Lava Records in September 2002 (European release Jan 2003). It is 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 receives great praise worldwide and, despite little or no airplay, goes 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. To promote the album the band undertake four further tours of Europe and North America, including one with acclaimed Swedish metal band Opeth. During these tours the visual element of the band's performance is taken to new heights with the involvement of film-maker and photographer Lasse Hoile who creates a dark and surreal visual counterpoint to the PT's music. The long promotional campaign for In Absentia ends on November 30th as the band play a homecoming show to! a packed out London Astoria.
During 2003 Porcupine Tree also set up their own label and on-line store. The first release on the Transmission label is a studio session recorded for XM Radio, Washington. The band plan to make a series of well recorded and packaged live and studio recordings available through the label.
2004 will see the band commence work on an ambitious new Porcupine Tree album, their second for Lava/Atlantic. The album will also take the form of a film script (and therefore hopefully later a film). The band's first DVD project is also planned for later in the year, as well as further live releases through their Transmission label.
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| Videos |
"Blackest Eyes" performed live in Porto, Portugal.
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