After a glorious return to the prog-rock scene, a return accompanied by a full tour and album, the legendary Porcupine Tree might be waving goodbye yet again. The band’s frontman Steven Wilson recently made a series of social media posts that were one part New Year celebration and one part newsletter. In the slew of information posted to the artist’s Twitter, Wilson hinted that any upcoming shows Porcupine Tree has scheduled for the year could very well be their last.
Porcupine Tree initially dissolved in 2010 when Wilson decided to focus on his solo material. The career move was fruitful for Wilson and saw the frontman release a number of albums but seemingly out of nowhere, the idea of a Porcupine Tree reunion came to be. In February of 2021, Wilson sat down for an interview with a Canadian prog-rock station and in that interview he hinted that a Porcupine Tree reunion will happen when “Everyone is least expecting it”. It didn’t take long as the band regrouped and released the single “Harridan” in November of that same year. The next year, the band released CLOSURE / CONTINUATION and followed it with an extensive touring schedule. With a new album under their belts and a full calendar of shows ahead of them, it seemed like everything was going great for Porcupine Tree and their fans couldn’t be happier.
All good things must come to an end, and that end may be closer than we think. In a series of Tweets sent out by Wilson on January 1, he mentioned that the upcoming festival dates the band has booked over the are likely their final shows. Along with this news Wilson announced his new solo album, a “10 track 65 minute musical journey that’s kinda hard to describe” will be released in 2023.
As of right now, the band has 7 festival spots booked for the summer that all take place overseas. You can check out all the Tweets from Wilson and the list of dates for what could be the last time Porcupine Tree perform live below.
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I was thinking he meant the likely final shows of the Closure/Continuation tour, not the end of Porcupine Tree. He continues to get back with No-Man and rejoins Blackfield so I’m not sure why he wouldn’t want to keep the Porcupine Tree option open as well. I understand that he probably prefers touring solo where he gets to play PT songs as well as his own, as opposed to playing only PT songs and ignoring the past 14 years of other stuff he’s done, but he sure seemed to be having fun on stage with Gavin and Richard and the two new guys.