Porcupine Tree News

PT’s got the blues...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:20:10 PST

They woke up this morning and found they’d been confirmed for an appearance at the Pistoia Blues Festival, Pistoia, Italy on July 14th. Check out this link for ticket information. The Incident was voted as the best album of 2009 by visitors to the Dutch Progressive Rock Pages website . The band also won the best concert category for the second year running,Gavin came out on top as best drummer,I Drive The Hearse was voted 10th best song of 2009, and Time Flies picked up best video of the year! Of course, polls can be fickle things and so whilst The Incident came out as the best album, 45 people taking part deemed the album as their biggest disappointment of 2009! Click here for all the results. Finally, Kscope’s vinyl edition series of PT platters continues with the reissue of PT’s early 90s foray into trance rhythms, Voyage 34. Released in a sumptuous heavyweight double coloured vinyl package with gatefold sleeve, you can check out Burning Shed’s page for more details.

More Shows

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:01:27 PST

Three more gigs have been added to the band’s second leg American tour. They can be found at The Fillmore, Detroit, May 2nd, Mr. Smalls, Pittsburgh, May 10th, and The National Theater, Richmond May 11th. The information on ROABP tickets and other details to follow when we have them. Meanwhile another date has been added to the band's itinerary of festival appearances following the announcement they'll be one of acts will be playing at Finland’s Ruisrock Festival on July 10th. Here’s PT’s entry and biogfor the festival and you can click here to enquire about tickets for the event.

PT Live in Tilburg Blu-Ray/DVD

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:44:05 PST

Porcupine Tree's new live film is approaching completion and a special edition will be available in April, with a regular version to follow in May. Anesthetize was filmed live over 2 nights in Tilburg, The Netherlands in October 2008, at the end of the Fear of a Blank Planet tour. The 130 minute live film includes a complete performance of the Blank Planet album and 11 other tracks, and was directed and edited by Lasse Hoile on high definition cameras, with the soundtrack mixed into stereo and 5.1 sound. The special edition will take the form of a cloth bound hard back 120 page book (as per The Incident and Insurgentes deluxe versions) featuring live photography of the band taken over the last 5 years. The book will house both a DVD and a much higher quality Blu-Ray disc version of the film, as well as 2 audio CDs of the soundtrack including one bonus track not featured in the film. The book and audio CDs will not be included with the standard retail versions of the Blu-Ray/DVD. More news soon.

Gavin’s clinic

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:28:17 PST

Drummers in the Poole area are in for a treat. Gavin will be doing a clinic for Poole Percussion on March 18th. The event will also be a tribute to one of Gavin’s childhood heroes, Paul Brodie. Find out more details about the event by visiting here and this is where you can buy your ticket. Meanwhile, an interview with SW when the band were in Melbourne earlier this year can be found here

More PT live

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:11:58 PST

There are a few more tickets available for PT’s gig at the Royal Albert Hall later this year. These are decent seats but they’ll soon be gone. You can grab them at SeeTickets and Ticketmaster . PT are also playing the Greenfield Festival in Interlaken, Switzerland on June, 11th-13th 2010. More details as we have them.

PT Play Roskilde Plus Extra Date

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:11:54 PST

The renowned Roskilde Festival will be featuring PT in its line-up this year. The festival takes place between 1st - 4th July and you can read about some of the other acts who’ll be appearing by taking a peak at the website. PT will be appearing on July 1st although at the moment the precise time has yet to be confirmed. More details when we have them. Elsewhere, there’s another date added to the second leg American tour. The band will be appearing at the Town Ballroom , Buffalo, on May 4th. Finally, the readers of Germany’s Rock Hard magazine were at the “best of...2009” polls recently, with more than a few casting their votes in a PT-ward direction. Top 50 favourite bands - PT #36 Top 50 favourite musicians - Steven Wilson #6 Top 50 best albums - The Incident #17 Top 30 best live bands - PT #11 This is the first time the band have broken through in these polls on this mag!

The Incident DVDA edition

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:50:09 PST

The DVDA audiophile 5.1 surround sound version of PT’s acclaimed The Incident will be released in March, and is available to pre-order now from the PT Store. This edition features the 5.1 mix of the album in advanced resolution/MLP lossless 5.1 surround, DTS 5.1 digital surround sound, and 24 bit stereo, and also includes the videos for Time Flies and Octane Twisted, a 30 second TV spot, and a photo gallery set to exclusive instrumental mixes of Black Dahlia and Flicker. In the meantime Steven Wilson "Cover Version VI" box starts shipping later this week. This is a one time only pressing in this boxed format, and to date 70% of the copies are sold on pre-orders, but you can still order it from Headphone Dust or Burning Shed.

Barbieri burning

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:41:58 PST

With the band enjoying such unprecedented popularity at the moment it’s attracting many new folks who will be unfamiliar with the solo work by the various PT members. By way of a helpful beginners guide, there’s a selection of albums from Richard Barbieri available from Burning Shed at the moment. Other Worlds In A Small Room features Richard in an ambient collaboration with his Japan / Rain Tree Crow colleague Steve Jansen and is now available as a mp3 / flac download for the first time. Check out Richard’s other releases in the Burning Shed store

There’s another review of the gig at The Tivoli in Brisbane which makes this observation: “The cast-iron rhythm section of the Melbourne-born bass wizard Colin Edwin and skins supremo Gavin Harrison is perhaps matchless in modern rock music, while Richard Barbieri remains one of the finest keyboard players since … well, his Japan days and touring guitarist John Wesley is a perfect vocal foil for Wilson – none more so than on the aching-then-bludgeoning Octane Twisted/The Séance/Circle Of Manias sequence.” You can read the full review at Rave Magazine . Finally, sticking with Australia, the gig at the Enmore in Sydney is scrutinised. “A highlight of second set definite was found with the second part of Fear Of A Blank Planet’s “Anesthetize” which sent shivers down my spine. Not only does this track have a groove section that could kill, but the heavy interlude that shows off drummer Gavin Harrison’s colossal skill would have been worth the entry fee alone.” Read the whole review at Metal Obsession

Melbourne in the picture

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:56:59 PST

There’s a new set of photos just been posted up over the tour blog. They come from gig at the Palace Theatre in Melbourne earlier this month and were taken by photographer Annie Smith. Oddly, Gav is absent from this selection. As Annie explains “I actually didn't get any photos of him unfortunately, the stage at the Palace is so high and the 10mins we had to shoot, it was pretty dark. Sorry!” Check out the rest of Annie’s pictures from Melbourne.
Staying with the Australian leg of the tour how about this description of the group on stage at The Tivoli in Brisbane. “As the shuddering distorted chords of Occam’s Razor segue into a scything Blind House, Danish artist Lasse Hoile’s exceptional-quality visuals start rolling on the screen and we leave the (blank) planet. Drummer Gavin Harrison and bassist Colin Edwin form a living, breathing engine room behind Wilson and longtime touring guitarist/backing vocalist John Wesley’s riff/solo onslaught and Richard Barbieri’s sublime synth soundscapes – “majestic musicianship” doesn’t seem fit to accurately describe it.” You can read the full review over at LifeMusicMedia.

More In Mexico

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:04:42 PST

There are two extra dates confirmed in Mexico. They are April 9th in Monterrey at Escenica, and April 11th in Guadalajara, at Teatro Diana. More details about tickets when we have them. Elsewhere, SW has been interviewed about his work on remixing the King Crimson catalogue into surround sound. An extract of the two-page spread can be found here.

Reviews from Down Under

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:55:51 PST

“Porcupine Tree have certainly raised the bar high for live shows this year with a stunning performance and one wonders who, if anyone, could possibly top it.” That’s the verdict of one reviewer at web mag, Faster Louder, after seeing the band’s show at the Tivoli in Brisbane. Check out the full review here. The same gig is also reviewed on The Vine where they were clearly taken by the countdown clock that appears during the interval. “The final seconds are chanted by the audience, and bassist Colin Edwin mock-runs to shoulder his instrument in time. Of the core four members - the others being singer/guitarist/pianist Wilson, drummer Gavin Harrison, keyboardist/sound manipulator Richard Barbieri – the bald, beret-wearing Edwin is the most expressive; or “least serious”. His prolonged smiles, closed eyes and transparent emotions provide a warm counterpoint to the assured, icy demeanour that Wilson presents.” Read all about it on The Vine.

More Dates

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:25:19 PST

The band will be playing the Tampa Theater, Florida on April 25th - ticket information will follow on. Meanwhile PT will be crossing the border into Canada where they will be visiting Capitole Du Quebec, Quebec City Thursday 6th May, Place De Arts in Montreal on Friday 7th May and the Sound Academy, Toronto, Ontario on Saturday 8th May. More details as we get them. Speaking of Canada, Rush’s Neil Peart has been musing on music and PT. “I went to see a band called Porcupine Tree not long ago. And I was talking with (singer-guitarist) Steven Wilson. They just put out a 55- minute piece. That's a finger to the whole iTunes shuffle thing, and he intended it as such. And I thought, 'Yeah, that's another way of rebelling against it -- by just saying no.' There's too much lost in giving up the integrity of an album -- what it represents to you as a musician, and as a human being, for that matter. So I like that approach.” You can read the whole interview here.

Pollwinner!

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:31:13 PST

Readers of Teraz Rock - Poland’s biggest rock magazine voted SW “The Best Foreign Instrumentalist/Musician of 2009” In order to get to the number one slot he beat a field that included The Edge, Jerry Cantrell, Jack White, Kerry King, Kirk Hammett, More Gore, Tom Morello, Mark Knopfler, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

SW was once again featured in Robert Fripp’s updated diary as the pair work on the latest remixes of the KC back catalogue.

Finally, there’s a new interview with Gavin where he talks about his book/DVD package, Rhythmic Illusions, his work within King Crimson and of course, PT. Asked about his contribution to the Tree, GH responded “It’s a hard thing to really quantify – the influence is subtle – but the sound of the band comes from the chemistry of all four members. We all like different kinds of music – and come from different musical backgrounds. I have a jazz background and like to improvise – the others guys are coming from a different place – so sometimes we fight about things but it always resolves in a better outcome in the end. We’re all evolving in our personal lives and that influences the personality of the band – I think the band is growing up.” Read the whole article here

Gav & the art of bicycle maintenance

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:44:49 PST

The second part of Gavin’s interview with Drum Department is available for viewing. Find out why riding a bike is part of his personal program, issues around sound production and loudness, his love of Lewis Taylor, recording at home, working with OSI, and the problems of long-term exposure to extremes of noise and tinnitus to name but a few! Elswhere, SW can be seen talking briefly about producing Orphaned Land and finally there’s a new fan forum on the block. Conference of the Strange is an offshoot of the Rush Forum and celebrates all things PT.

SW Cover Version VI pre-order

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:08:58 PST

Steven Wilson's Cover Version VI is now available to pre-order and will begin shipping from 22nd February. This will be the last in the series of CD singles featuring a cover version and an original. The single comes in a special limited edition box which contains CV6 in a picture sleeve as well as empty picture sleeves for all of the previous singles too (note that it will NOT contain the first 5 CDs, you have to have them already in order to put them in to the sleeves provided in the box!) The box also contains a booklet of drawings of SW by Hajo Mueller. You can pre-order now from Headphone Dust or Burning Shed.

Sale Recurring

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:43:16 PST

The sale on merchandise continues over in the US shop. Take a peek here to see what the well-dressed PT fan will be wearing at the second-leg of the US tour.

No charge for holding up the sky

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:42:08 PST

The second and third albums by Ex-Wise Heads (Colin Edwin’s side-project with ex-Henry Cow win and reed player, Geoff Leigh) are now available as free downloads. Colin offers some comments about this over on his Myspace page blog. You can get Time And Emotion Study (2003) here and Holding Up The Sky (2006) on this page.

No-Man’s Mixtaped DVD gets the thumbs-up in Altsounds. “The sound mix on this DVD is brilliant and makes clear the atmospheric sound from the sound of the rain coming into the right speaker on the headphones while guitar is played in the left at the end of the first track. The clarity of Tim Bowness’ vocals, the distortion of Steven’s guitar on ‘Lighthouse’. It's just crystal clear (and the reason I now understand why Steven has worked on remastering King Crimson’s work into 5:1)” Here’s that review in full. Meanwhile, there’s more Gavin than you can shake a stick out. Writing in issue 164 of Drum magazine, Gav offers up ten helpful hints to get your career going. There’s a summary of a couple of them found over on Blabbermouth.

He’s also been talking to the folks at PyroMusic.net. If that’s not enough, he was also the subject of this video interview and demonstration for the German site, Drum Department and finally, he’s been interviewed by Sydney’s Utopia Records.

More in Mexico

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:54:55 PST

Due to overwhelming demand PT have added another date at the Metropolitan Theatre, Mexico. Tickets for the gig on April 13th go on sale on January 29th. Please note there are no ROABP services available for this date. Later in the year the band will be playing the Hurricane and Southside Festivals on June 19th and 20th respectively. Further details as we get them.

PT Play NY

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:57:05 PST

Porcupine Tree will be hosting a special in-concert evening at New York’s historic Radio City Music Hall on September 24th, 2010. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on February 6th whilst ROABP will be able to buy theirs from February 3rd.
Further details about the concert will be posted at a later date, so stay tuned. You can find out details about how to access ROABP services here .

PT Tops The Polls

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:05:18 PST

Porcupine Tree tops the critics polls for 2009 in Germany’s Eclipsed Magazine. The Incident was voted Best Album of the Year, with PT also grabbing the No.1 honours for Best Live Concert of the Year, and Time Flies came in at No. 5 in the Best Song of the Year category. SW’s Insurgentes got voted in at No. 25 in the Best Albums of 2009 category, whilst SW’s remix of King Crimson’s seminal album, In The Court of the Crimson King was voted in at No. 9 in the Best Reissues of the Year section. Listener’s to Poland’s Radio 3 also voted The Incident as No.2 album of the year. The latest edition of Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine also publishes its Best Of polls for 2009 and once again, PT does very well indeed.

PT were voted as No.1 Best Band, the Critic’s No.1 Best Album of the Year was The Incident (SW's Insurgentes was No. 6). The Reader’s poll saw The Incident come in at No. 2. For their Event of the Year, PT’s The Incident tour was voted at No.4, whilst Gavin got the No.2 spot as Best Drummer, and Steven nabbed the No.4 slot as Best Guitarist. SW also took the No.1 slot as Prog Icon of 2009! Finally, the King Crimson reissues (which SW remixed) were also voted in at No.1 in the Best Reissue category. A big thank you to everyone who voted for the band and their work in these polls!

PT Coachella Festival Appearance

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:16:22 PST

Porcupine Tree will be playing at the Coachella Festival. The three day festival in California has the band booked on day two, Saturday 17th April. Get the details of the full festival line-up here.

Meanwhile Issue 9 of PT fanzine Carbon Nation is out. Full of PT-packed goodness it features Richard Barbieri solo gig review/album review, interview with Steven Wilson, interview with PT manager Andy Leff, interview with Colin Edwin, plus Incident tour gig reviews from Philadelphia, Baltimore and LA and the background story to No-man’s Mixtaped DVD by director Richard Smith. For more details on how to order the magazine take a look at the Carbon Nation website.

Book news & interviews

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:45:54 PST

Gavin’s new book and DVD package, Rhythmic Designs is out next week. As well as clocking in at a whopping 204 pages of transcriptions of the albums Drop and Circles, there’s 2 hours and 45 minutes of DVD to watch. Available for ordering now on Gav’s store at Burning Shed.

Gavin is also the subject of an interview conducted during the tail end of last year’s tour. Richard Barbieri can be seen and heard being interviewed in Italy last year and contains some interesting comments and views on the changing nature of the music business.

More US shows

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:47:24 PST

24th April – Miami, FL – The Fillmore 28th April – Charlotte, NC – Amos’s Southend The band will be opening their US tour with a festival we can’t announce just yet, but watch this space.

North American tour second leg

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:56:38 PST

Porcupine Tree will return to North America in April for the second leg of the Incident tour, concentrating on many cities that were not included on the first leg. So far shows confirmed are: Tue 20th April - DALLAS, HOUSE OF BLUES Wed 21st April - HOUSTON, HOUSE OF BLUES Fri 23rd April - ORLANDO, HOUSE OF BLUES Tue 27th April - ATLANTA, TABERNACLE Fri 30th April - CHICAGO, RIVIERA Sat 1st May - CINCINNATI, BOGART'S

PT India Pix

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:57:38 PST

The Incident tour blog has been updated. Check out the set of photographs taken by Claudia Hahn of the band on their recent gig in Mumbai here.

Elsewhere, The Incident has been included in metal site Pandemonium’s Top 25 albums of 2009. Check out the full list. Finally, SW’s Nsrgnts Rmxs gets a thumbs-up in web mag, Blistering, which notes “Many of the takes have the feel of the quieter moments from Porcupine Tree’s Fear Of A Blank Planet and Deadwing albums”.

Mexico City venue change

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:30:38 PST

Please note that the venue for the show in Mexico City on 14th April has now changed to Teatro Metropolitan.

A Day In The Life Of PT

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:06:11 PST

Roadrunner have posted up a video that takes a peek behind the scenes of PT on tour. You can find out all about the glamour, the glitz and why Colin is not unlike Beyonce by clicking here. Elsewhere, PT’s most recent show (Mumbai) was still setting the pulse racing of some fans. Nothwithstanding SW’s dislike of a certain mp3 player the reviewer for Indian webmag, Mid-Day observed that PT’s music is “the kind of sound that you play on repeat mode on your iPod until it is firmly lodged somewhere behind your eyes.” The Incident is included in Metal Review’s Top 25 albums of 2009, whilst over at Classic Rock Magazine, Open Car (Deadwing) finds itself in a list of the greatest songs of the noughties.

Reduced prices at SWHQ / Cover Version VI

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:47:34 PST

A few Bass Communion and Steven Wilson releases are available from SW's own website at slightly reduced prices during January only. You can pick up the standard CD/DVD edition of "Insurgentes" for only £8 (and if you haven't got this one yet, it really is one of the essential SW recordings). Also reduced for January only is the recent limited edition Bass Communion live album in Japanese style mini gatefold LP sleeve. Head over to the mail order page for more information. The other SW related news is that Headphone Dust will soon release the newly recorded Cover Version VI single (but please don't write in trying to order it yet). This will be the last in the series of CD singles featuring a cover version and an original. In the meantime you can listen to the second track from the single on MySpace page now - of course as always the cover version itself will remain a secret until the CD single is actually released. The plan is for there to be a limited edition box which will house not just CV6 but all of the previous singles too, complete with a picture sleeve for each one. ToneFloat will also release CV5 and CV6 on 7 inch vinyl. More news soon....

RAH VIP packages off the menu

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:56:16 PST

Please note that contrary to an earlier news item the band have decided not to offer a special VIP package for the Royal Albert Hall show. If you joined the Residents of a Blank Planet service over the last few days in anticipation of this, please contact the PT store to ask for a refund. Apologies for the confusion.

Screened & heard

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:51:46 PST

Seasonal greetings to all PT fans and site visitors. Following the pre-Xmas present of news about the RAH date in London next year, here’s a quick round-up of recent PT-related appearances at a computer screen near you. PT’s recent appearance in Mumbai continues to excite and delight if this review of the gig in webmag, Split, is anything to go by. The Hindustani Times also mentions a post-gig jaunt into the city by members of the band. There’s a three part interview with SW Steven talks about touring and the challenge of raising a following in different countries, pigeon-holing PT and the songwriting journey that resulted in The Incident and his love of painting in sound! Check out Part One / Part Two / Part Three. Speaking of The Incident, we’re indebted to Evaristo of Porcupine Tree Italy for letting us know that The Incident came out at the top of a RoadRunner poll in that country. Here’s that list in full. Finally, fellow RR artist and pal, Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt (also featured on the above list) offers up his top five ABBA tracks after having been turned on to the Swedish super-troupers by SW.