Porcupine Tree – Live, where it began

Porcupine Tree – Live, where it began

By Pete Clemons

I couldn’t just let this pass. But the 4 December 2018 marked exactly 25 years since the first ever Porcupine Tree gig at the Nags Head, High Wycombe in 1993.

And what a journey it has been for Steven Wilson ever since. To get to the position of being a musician, simply creating music from his bedroom, to an internationally acclaimed artist has not been easy. The fact is that it has been far from an easy ride. There has been an incredible amount of hard work, commitment and an awful lot of self-sacrifice along the way.

Additionally, Steven is at the forefront of giving the listener as complete an aural experience as possible. From the artwork of an album right down to its final production and mastering. Steven oversees the whole thing. He is also seen as a leading light in the field of state of the art recording techniques. Which is where Steven’s real passion lies.

As far as Porcupine Tree, being a live band were concerned, questions were being asked a couple of years prior to that first gig as to whether Steven’s ‘bedroom’ project would ever be heard by a wider audience. It wasn’t as though Steven had not already had experience on the road. He had, through his ‘other band’ No-Man. But by the time of those first gigs, Porcupine Tree had already had a couple of albums released. Those had been through their independent label, Delerium Records who, it must be said, deserve a lot of credit for getting the band heard during those early days.

Even in a news update from mid-1993, when asked about playing Porcupine Tree music live, Steven mentioned that he was no nearer having a live band than he had been at the previous update. He continued that, he had hoped to do a few gigs to promote the release of ‘Up the Downstair’ but the whole project just didn’t justify the expense of touring yet.

Suddenly, during October 1993, a news update was released that was a lot more up-beat about the whole live thing. It read ‘To promote the imminent re-release of Voyage 34 (Nov 29), I’m doing some gigs. This is a bit of an experiment and we are only doing three to start with, just in case it’s a total disaster’. These will be at High Wycombe, Nags Head on Dec 4, London Borderline on Dec 7, Coventry Tic Toc on Dec 11 (although by the time of the gig the venue had been renamed Antics).

The news update also mentioned that Porcupine Tree were doing a radio one session on December 6 for the Marc Radcliffe show. The band, who would be accompanying Steven, was also announced. Steven Wilson on vocals and guitar, Colin Edwin on bass, Richard Barbieri on keyboards (who both played on ‘Up the Downstair’) and Chris Maitland (from NO-MAN’s live band) on drums.

Surprisingly that first gig, held in an upstairs period styled room that I remember contained a lot of old timber, sold out as it drew in people from far and wide. From memory it was, understandably, a slightly nervy but very competent debut. I cannot think of very much interaction between band and audience. A couple of the musicians were laughing and joking before the gig but as soon as the first notes of V34 were released they all came across as highly committed to the task in hand. For what it’s worth, I did come away feeling hugely impressed. For me, that live debut at The Nags Head came across as a complete success. The gig in Coventry on the following Saturday was an altogether different affair. But what did the band think about it all?

An update received during the early part of 1994 mentioned that Steven had been happy with the way that the PT shows had gone. Changes had been made of a consequence of finding that certain pieces had not worked in a live context (‘Fadeaway’ for example) and others had been introduced to replace them. At present Porcupine Tree are doing several shows in Europe, where a lot of interest had been shown.

Toward the end of 1994 things were gathering momentum as half a dozen UK gigs were announced. One being at the Old Trout in Windsor on November 9 which I managed to get to. News of these events came with a couple of cautionary lines. One being how it had been difficult getting decent gigs in the UK. The other was whether or not the ‘professionals’ would recognise the quality and appeal of the music.

Remember, all this was happening at a time when Britpop was taking the country by storm. And the kind of music which Steven was creating, was very much a part of the underground. Plus, the internet was very much in its infancy. So, getting the word out there was still very much hand to mouth. How times have changed over the last quarter of a century.

After more than 700 gigs, culminating with a gig at the Royal Albert Hall, 10 studio albums and several live releases Steven pressed the pause button on Porcupine Tree as he concentrated on his solo career where he went on to become the biggest selling artist for the K.Scope label. And still, to many, the music of Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson is still to be discovered.