Porcupine Tree in Coventry 1993

 Porcupine Tree in Coventry 1993

by Pete Clemons

The latest Future Bites session, by Steven Wilson, saw him revive one of his earliest solo recordings. This being a version of Voyage 34. Despite it being a solo effort, Voyage 34 was released first released under the name Porcupine Tree way back in 1992, and was one of the longest singles ever released clocking in at over 30 minutes long.

This particular session was released onto the internet on December 11 2020 and, while on my daily walk that day, a series of coincidences began to occur to me. It suddenly struck me that Porcupine Tree had played in Coventry on December 11, but 27 years earlier, in 1993. Even more coincidental was that Voyage 34 had played a major part of that gig.

The first half of December 1993 had been a busy time for the recently formed Porcupine Tree as a live unit. There had been a weeks rehearsals followed by their first gig, at the Nags Head High Wycombe, on the 4th. A trip to Manchester for a session on the Mark Radcliffe show followed on the 6th. Another gig on the 7th, at the Borderline in London, and then onto Coventry on the 11th to round the year off.

The Coventry gig was held at Antics nightclub formerly known as the Tic Toc. More recently this popular venue was known as The Colly and most recently Kasbah. It was not the first time Steven Wilson had played the venue. He had performed there around 18 months earlier with his other band No-man. But what was significant about this gig was that it was the only time Porcupine Tree, during its existence, performed as a trio. Keyboard player Richard Barbieri was unavailable for this date due, as I understand, to a previously arranged engagement.

Steve Ashwell, one of the organisers of the event, remembers it well: 'I know that when we first received and loved the initial recordings, Steven had no live band, because we spoke to him about gigging him here. I hope therefore that we played a small part in him getting one together! '

At that time Saturday evenings at Antics/Tic Toc were normally reserved for blues nights but dance/trance nights, as opposed to a band, were beginning to prove to be popular. Ultramarine had appeared there a few weeks earlier and that had been very well received. So this was the perfect foil for the three piece who were heavily reliant on Richard's keyboards that, for this gig, had apparently been pre-recorded.

A more truncated version of Voyage 34 had been performed a week earlier at the Nags Head. But this particular audience was treated to the full version, possibly more, as I honestly cannot remember anything else being performed during the entire night. And the attendees, who had also been provided with a DJ who had been providing music without a traditional verse/chorus structure, lapped it all up.

With trance being mostly a layered instrumental music, characterised by a repetitive melodic beat, that includes peaks and drops and Voyage 34 fitted the bill perfectly. In all honesty nobody, at that time, had really heard of Porcupine Tree and fewer still would even realise Richard Babieri was absent.

The event had coincided with the build up toward the Christmas period and the atmosphere was 'joyous' to say the least. The evening which on the face of it, had the potential to be an absolute disaster, actually proved to be an total success if measured in terms of a happy and receptive crowd. A perfect combination in fact.