Porcupine Tree - Talking to Richard Allen

 Porcupine Tree - Talking to Richard Allen

by Pete Clemons

Rock band, Porcupine Tree appear to have attained legendary status. October 2010 saw the band give their last performance at the Royal Albert Hall. The hall holds almost 5300 people and I am not even sure it sold out. The band and their management were pushing the promotion for the gig right up till the last day.

Fast forward a dozen years and Porcupine Tree are due to play the SSE Arena at Wembley in November in front of 12500 people. And it is already close to selling out.

It has not been the easiest of rides for Porcupine Tree though. It has taken over 30 years of hard slog and a lot of heartache to get to this position and I'm not just talking about the band members themselves. Yes, of course they are crucial to the story of Porcupine Tree but all stories start with a beginning and more widely there were also sacrifices made.

None more so than Richard Allen, the band’s first manager who, alongside Ivor Truman also ran an obscure record label called Delirium and a mail order operation called The Freak Emporium. Glenn Povey was also the band’s first promoter and booking agent and all his good work seems to have been forgotten. Glenn did a huge amount for the band and his huge contribution seems to have been unfairly ignored in the band’s history. Glenn for many years organised tours and concerts when nobody really cared about the band other than their first loyal fans. “I think he was treated very badly in the way that he was just dropped without so much as a thanks for all your work” says Richard.

As the story goes, Richard had been sent cassette tapes by Steven Wilson, the talent behind Porcupine Tree. Initially Richard tossed the tapes to one side. Sometime later Richard heard the tape after a friend he had lent it to suggested it was very good and that he should listen to it! When he heard the music on the tape it blew him away and he knew that with enough effort the project could one day fill an arena “It was a pretty crazy thought really when you look back as the band had many lucky breaks that were out of their control, but I was right!” Richard invested the next 10 years of his life in managing and promoting the band from scratch.

A recent chat I had with Richard seemed to centre around the last year or so of his involvement with the band. Water under the bridge now as far as he is concerned but it is still part of the story.

The chat began with talk about the Rich Wilson book of Porcupine Tree’s history which is currently being revised and updated.

Richard Allen asked me if I had read the Porcupine Tree book and said that Rich Wilson had spoken to everyone from those early days. Apparently, the research took him years....

I replied that I kind of guessed Rich Wilson had done his homework. I did once mention the book to Steven Wilson to see if he had read it. He replied with a curt no....but he did ask if it was accurate to which I said that the early events were as accurate as I remember them to be, but of course the book went into a lot more detail that I would have known.

Richard Allen continued 'For me personally I don't think they ever topped Signify but Steven seems to be doing OK nowadays. Yes I think he realises how important those early years were and it is a shame Steven wouldn't get involved in Rich Wilson’s book...a mistake in my view. It’s definitely accurate unlike the band’s official history! The band liked to have their own polished version of their history like all bands including Pink Floyd...There is nothing controversial in Porcupine Tree history anyhow...It is pretty pedestrian as bands go'

I then mentioned how Steven Wilson’s own recent book touches on how things were just not enjoyable towards the end of that last tour in 2010.

Richard Allen went on to mention that 'Porcupine Tree didn't socialise outside of the band yet he always assumed they did... “The main reason I quit was it was not fun anymore'”

'I also did not get on with the bands US manager Andy Leff. It all went a bit Spinal Tap with “18 ft not 18 inches” type incidents costing the band large sums of money. Andy was a massive fan of the band and managed to convince Jason Flom to sign Porcupine Tree to Lava but the haphazard admin of the tours in America and the Tour with Yes cost the band huge sums of money blowing more than their total tour support in a very short time. I had agreed to split management with Andy if he got a deal, but that arrangement was doomed from the outset because no manager can survive on half commission (not least half of nothing) and I was continually having to sort out the logistics in the USA. That was the responsibility of the management in the USA as far as I was concerned. The main reason I quit was because I was being blamed for things that I had not organised, which I had no control over and which had seen a humongous loss overall. This was made worse by the fact that the In Absentia tour of Europe I organised with Glenn Povey had made a profit for the band! Steven didn’t really see what I was having to deal with, and I recall at the end of the In Absentia Tour there was what I can only describe as a ‘kangaroo court’ where I was accused of various admin issues all of which proved to be the responsibility of Andy not me. I batted off every accusation and the band just moped off making no apology. That was the final straw for me, and I quit. It was all fairly miserable by then, but I hated the music as well because it had become a kind of soundtrack to the moaning, so I was glad to go to be honest. When the accountants had to pick up the mess the band realised that I was telling the truth”

Since then, Richard Allen has had further adventures in the world of politics and tax campaigning and is still a successful guy. He looks back on that era with fondness “Its far enough away now to remember the good stuff and forget all the constant complaining!” he laughs. I’ll have to write a book of my own , but Porcupine Tree will almost certainly be just a few chapters.

Richard concludes "30 years ago on the way to work on my bike whilst listening to Radioactive Toy on my walkman I had a vision of Porcupine Tree playing to thousands of people in an arena. This year that vision comes true. I don't think even Steven saw that coming back then" I hope they do Radioactive Toy in their forthcoming set.