Introduction

Porcupine Tree began almost as a joke in 1987, when Steven Wilson and his friend, Malcolm Stocks, decided to start a fictitious band. Inspiration came from one of Steven's favourite groups, XTC, who in 1984 formed an imaginary psychedelic band called The Dukes of Stratosphear. The band was made up of members of XTC given fictitious names, like Sir John Johns and Lord Cornelius Plum. They played music inspired by the late 1960s and were initially marketed as a mysterious new act.

Following XTC's example, Steven invented fictitious members for his own band, Porcupine Tree: Sir Tarquin Underspoon, Timothy Tadpole-Jones, Sebastian Tweetle-Blampton III, and a drummer called The Expanding Flan. Although the band consisted only of Steven Wilson recording in his bedroom at his parents' house, he took it seriously enough that he decided to record several hours' worth of material.

Steven released a series of recordings on cassette, under the Porcupine Tree name: Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (Words from a Hessian Sack) (1989), The Nostalgia Factory (and other tips for amateur golfers) (1990) and The Love, Death & Mussolini EP (1990). To preserve the joke, Steven also invented an extensive discography and a long history for the Porcupine Tree.

Simultaneously, Steven formed an art rock band, No-Man, with singer Tim Bowness and violinist Ben Coleman. The band signed to the indie record label now known as One Little Independent Records, whose roster included Björk. But despite early promise and high praise from the press, the group achieved only modest success. Wilson and Bowness continued as a duo, releasing several studio albums.

In early 1989, Steven started sending out copies of Tarquin's Seaweed Farm to various people he thought might be interested. The cassette caught the attention of Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman, who produced an underground magazine called Freakbeat. They were in the process of starting a new record label called Delerium. They agreed to put one of Steven's songs on their first release: a compilation of music by psychedelic groups. Delerium also reissued the first two Porcupine Tree cassettes.

Steven was invited to sign to the Delerium label, and he compiled some of the material he'd already released, into a double album called On the Sunday of Life. Although it was under the band name, Porcupine Tree, it was still a solo project. The record was released in early 1992 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, which sold out very quickly. The album was reissued, and by the end of the decade, had sold 20,000 copies.

In late 1992, Steven released the single 'Voyage 34', which was originally to be part of another double album. The eventual release - Up the Downstair (1993) - did not include 'Voyage 34' and was a single album rather than a double. Although Porcupine Tree was still a solo project, the record did include guest contributions from future band members Richard Barbieri and Colin Edwin. In December 1994, further songs from the Up the Downstair sessions were released, as the Staircase Infinities EP - a limited edition of 2,000 - later released on CD.

In 1993, Steven decided he wanted to play Porcupine Tree music live, and he got together a band consisting of himself on guitar and vocals, Barbieri on keyboards, Edwin on bass, and Chris Maitland on drums. They made their debut on 4 December 1993 at the Nag's Head pub in High Wycombe, England, in front of a crowd of about 200 people.

The next album - The Sky Moves Sideways (1995) - marked a crucial transition in the band's history. Steven had already recorded part of the album when he invited the others to join the band. Rather than being a solo project with the occasional guest, Porcupine Tree now had permanent members. The album was also the band's first release in America.

The first Porcupine Tree album to feature all four band members on the entire record was Signify in 1996. The band embarked on a highly successful European tour, and in March 1997, played in front of 5,000 fans over three nights in Rome.

With the band's increasing success, Delerium Records felt they didn't have the resources to support the band's increasing profile. Porcupine Tree parted amicably from the label, and Richard Allen continued to help managing them.

1998 was spent recording the next album. It took a little while to find a new label, but eventually, a deal was signed with the independent, Snapper. The first release was Stupid Dream in 1999. The band toured extensively throughout Europe to support the album, and also toured America for the first time.

In early 2000, Lightbulb Sun was released, and further extensive touring of Europe and America continued into the next year. Porcupine Tree played at European festivals and also supported American progressive metal band Dream Theater, on a major tour.

In February 2002, drummer Chris Maitland left to be replaced by Gavin Harrison. Around that time, the band signed a new deal with Lava Records: part of the major label, Atlantic Records. For the first time, Porcupine Tree had substantial financial backing and travelled to New York to record the next album: In Absentia. It was released in America in September 2002 and in Europe in January 2003. On various tours promoting the album, guitarist/ vocalist John Wesley, augmented the band. In Absentia was the band's most successful release at that stage, selling over 100,000 copies in the first year.

The next album - Deadwing - released in 2005 proved to be the band's last record on Lava, as Atlantic decided to close the label down. Porcupine Tree then signed with Roadrunner Records, and the band began the most commercially successful period of their career. In early 2007, Fear of a Blank Planet was released. It was Grammy-nominated (Best Surround Sound Album), and readers of Classic Rock magazine voted it Album Of The Year. It reached number 31 in the UK charts and 59 in the US. That September, the band released the mini-album, Nil Recurring, consisting of additional tracks recorded during the Fear of a Blank Planet sessions.

Porcupine Tree's tenth album - The Incident - was released in September 2009. It was also nominated for the Best Surround Sound Grammy. It reached number 23 in the UK and number 25 in America. They played live at London's Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 2010. That was their last public appearance, on record or live, for 12 years. In the meantime, Steven pursued a successful solo career, which began in 2008 with the release of Insurgentes. For a long time, he said the band would probably never return, even though there had never been an official split.

In June 2022, the band's eleventh studio album, Closure/Continuation, was released. Steven revealed that he and Gavin Harrison had been working together occasionally on new material for the last ten years, and that Richard Barbieri had been collaborating with him as well. The album reached number two in the UK, the band's highest-ever chart position to date. They toured North America and Europe between September and November 2022, ending up in London 12 years after they had previously played there. A live album and DVD, Closure/Continuation.Live., recorded at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on 7 November 2022, was released in December 2023. In summer 2023, the band played several festivals in Europe. At the time of writing (January 2025), the band haven't revealed any future plans.

Cast of Characters Steven Wilson (born 1967)

Singer, guitarist, keyboard player, founder member and main songwriter for Porcupine Tree. As a child, Wilson was forced to learn the guitar and piano, but gave up, as he was not enjoying it. At the age of eleven, he found an acoustic guitar in his parents' attic and began experimenting with multitrack recording. His father, an electronics engineer, built Wilson a four-track recorder, and also a primitive sequencer that divided bars up into units of three and nine, rather than the usual four and eight; perhaps instilling in Wilson a love of prog rock's unusual time signatures.

In bands at school, Wilson started his mid-teens with Karma and Altamont, the latter later morphing into the Bass Communion ambient project. He's also released psychedelic material under the name I.E.M. (Incredible Expanding Mindfuck). He has collaborated with Tim Bowness (No-Man), Aviv Geffen (Blackfield) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Storm Corrosion). Wilson has worked extensively as a producer for both Porcupine Tree and Opeth, and has remixed several classic albums, often in surround sound.

Wilson's solo career began in 2008 while he was still a Porcupine Tree member, and he's since written and produced eight studio albums. His most recent - To the Bone (2017), The Future Bites (2021) and The Harmony Codex (2023) - all reached the UK top five. His eighth solo studio album, The Overview, is due to be released in March 2025.

Richard Barbieri (born 1957)

Keyboard player for Porcupine Tree, Barbieri was a founder member of the art-rock band Japan, and also performed with their later incarnation, Rain Tree Crow. He first worked with Wilson on the tour to promote No-Man's debut mini-album. He does not regard himself as a technically gifted player...