Porcupine Tree Come to the Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall

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Drummer Gavin Harrison joined Porcupine Tree in 2002. The son of a working musician, his long resume includes work with artists ranging from Lisa Stansfield to Shari Belafonte, from Kevin Ayers to Harry Shearer. Last July he got back into post-pandemic touring with both King Crimson and Pineapple Thief.

Formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 as a fictional band, Porcupine Tree became a legitimate group with roots that include progressive rock, metal and psychedelia. Often compared to Pink Floyd, the English group has released 11 studio albums and additional side projects by Wilson. Porcupine has built a legacy among fans.

Harrison spoke about touring after lockdown and his life in music as the band moves through its first tour in 12 years.

“A lot of people are saying it’s first show they’ve been to in two or three years,” he says of other the dates he played before Porcupine Tree reemerged. “We’d see a lot of no-shows. It was typical that 10-20% of the people just didn’t show up. They bought a ticket didn’t ask for a refund—they just didn’t come,”

Harrison said Porcupine Tree’s group dynamic hasn’t changed much since returning from the hiatus that began in 2010. He joined in 2002, having known keyboard player Richard Barbieri who’d joined the band. When the drummer spot opened Barbieri suggested Harrison for the gig, recording the album In Absentia.

Onstage Harrison improvises from night to night, varying drum fills, “just because I’m an old jazz head.” He said the first few nights of each tour bring the highest concentration level, requiring the musician to be “focused on what you do. There is so much going on around you—the lights, the film, every concert is a different room, the audience is further away or closer, you can see them or you can’t—at least for the first few shows you are in your little world, concentrating. Until you get past four or five shows, where you can really start looking around the room, that things are going to happen automatically.”

He says this tour will easily be the biggest and best Porcupine Tree experience in terms of length of show and wide range of material, ranging from the beginning up to playing the entire new album. The immersive performances will be over two and a half hours.

The Family Business

Unlike many of his peers Harrison entered the family business and legitimate impressions came early on.

His dad was a jazz trumpet player and at age six, young Gavin’s course was set. “There was never any doubt in my mind that I was going to spend the rest of my life being a professional musician, playing the drums. I just loved music, being part of it and contributing to it.”

When he was older his dad would take him to the BBC to watch recording sessions. He describes the “weird experience” of seeing musicians not playing to an audience but into microphones. “Later on, my father  worked at a famous nightclub in London called The Talk of the Town—a Las Vegas-style cabaret club.”

Residencies there included Judy Garland, Stevie Wonder or Mel Torme. “On a Monday afternoon they would rehearse for the month. My dad would take me off school and sometimes I would sit next to someone like Louie Belson and sit and watch them.”

This was many decades before YouTube and Harrison was getting firsthand experience watching these “incredible, fantastic drummers.” He recalls them as being very kind to him and even sometimes give him a pair of drumsticks and he’d get on their kit during a break. “It was the best music school you could ever imagine.”

Harrison grew up with the template of what a professional musician was like. “It was realistic. We lived that life.”

Think about this. If his dad thought it was a worthwhile experience his he’d cover for his son’s musical education. “‘That’s worth him taking a day off school, in my opinion,’ and he’d write some note for the headmaster saying, ‘Gavin wasn’t well yesterday.’ And I’d be sitting next to Stevie Wonder’s drummer all afternoon. My dad realized that was such an education for me.”

It happened quite a few times and in his young teenage years he’d play for local amateur dramatic shows and his dad would tell him take the next day off from school, valuing that experience more than the regular school lesson.

Desert Island Music

“I’ve been asked this question quite a few times. It’s two albums by jazz trumpet player Art Farmer. Both feature Steve Gadd on drums, who’s my hero. Crawl Space and Big Blues, they’ve only got two songs on each side. I’ve probably listened to those two are records more than any other in my life.”

He said every time he hears them, they take him back to being 14 or 15 years old and “really excited at every note. Those two records are deep in my blood. I could sing every note of everyone’s solo.”

Describing the players as absolute jazz masters, he said, “I think it formed the basis of what I started to recognize as good taste and good design from a minimalistic point of view—playing the right amount of notes and making it work—rather than coming in on a high technical lever and playing a million notes.”

Harrison said it circles back to his dad’s playing. “I once said, ‘Thanks for teaching me about minimalism,’ and he said, ‘It’s the least I could do.’” 

Porcupine Tree plays Wednesday Sept. 21 at The Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Uihlein Hall.