Porcupine Tree Bandcamp

Porcupine Tree Bandcamp

By Pete Clemons

http://www.porcupinetree.com/

For these unprecedented times, Porcupine Tree have launched a Bandcamp page where you can download full resolution recordings of rare and unreleased rarities from across the 20 years or so it the band were in existence. The page, and the opportunities to download this music, will be around indefinitely and the band aim to add more titles to it over the coming months.

Included within its many and varied content is an almost complete recording of the first ever live performance of Porcupine Tree. After the newly assembled band line-up had rehearsed for one week, they played 4 times in quick succession. This nervous but spirited show at a sold-out Nag's Head club in High Wycombe was the first, followed by a BBC radio session, and modestly attended shows in London and Coventry.

The recording was made directly to DAT from the mixing board, so as with any board tape the balance is not perfect, but the quality is excellent. Radioactive Toy, Up the Downstair (extract), and Not Beautiful Anymore were previously included on a limited cassette/vinyl album Spiral Circus, which also contained music from the BBC session and London shows.

The track listing for the download of the Nags Head gig is 1. Voyage 34, 2. Always Never, 3. The Nostalgia Factory, 4. Burning Shed, 5. Radioactive Toy, 6. Up the Downstair and 7. Not Beautiful Anymore.

And the band line up that night was Richard Barbieri - Synthesisers, Keyboards, Colin Edwin - Bass guitar, Chris Maitland – Drums and Steven Wilson - Guitar, Vocals.

'Fadeaway' was also performed at the show, between 'Radioactive Toy' and 'Up the Downstair', but due to issues with the source tape could not be included here. I do know that it took a great deal of effort went into getting this gig download out there. The trouble is that DAT tapes, the original source, do not keep well unlike their analogue equivalents.

Steven Wilson said 'I had a to edit around some glitches on the DAT, and remove one track completely, but it's about 90% there'.

Coincidentally March 2020 sees one of Porcupine Tree's landmark albums, Stupid Dream, celebrate its 21st birthday. For me, at that time, Stupid Dream felt such a departure from what had gone before. I wasn't keen on it at all. And, back in 1999 I quizzed Steven Wilson about it. He said 'Anyway, the new album. I think it's the best and it certainly has my favourite songs on it. As to whether it has been a shift in direction?, Of Course !!. Hasn't every album been different to all those that came before?, I hope so – that was my goal. The sign of a good album is I think one that you're not sure of the first time you hear it – that's certainly the way with me anyway. The new one is about written now and is different again'. And he wasn't joking !!

I remember those words of Steven's as being quite profound to me and certainly changed a lot of how I approached listening to new music going forward. As for the Stupid Dream album, it became one of the most listened to Porcupine Tree albums in my collection.

I appreciate that this is a very difficult time for everyone at the moment, including musicians and their families. Bandcamp offers a huge variety of ways where you can keep these musicians, a lot of who have no other form of income, artistically active. Not just for Porcupine Tree but for a whole host of other artists.