Porcupine Tree were, in many ways, the most important musical discovery of my life. They will always be my favourite rock band and l would not be exaggerating to say that their music has had a pivotal influence on my career direction. Read on to find out more about my journey of discovering rock's most criminally underrated band of all time.

In 2009, I started college in Winchester, in the south of England. Every day my commute was soundtracked by the sheer brilliance of Porcupine Tree, a band that I had discovered in the same year through an article I read on a Rush fan blog that mentioned that their guitarist Alex Lifeson had played a solo on Porcupine Tree's 'Anesthetize'. After reading that, I fired up YouTube, listened to the song and was blown away.

From there, I kept finding songs and albums to listen to and over the next year or so slowly worked my way through the band's enormous back catalogue. I had an urge to listen to every song I could find and this even meant digging up bootleg recordings online! To this day, Porcupine Tree is the only band I can name where I'm confident that I've heard ALL the studio albums, EP's, live albums and countless demos and rarities. It was the most immersive musical rabbit hole I've ever fallen down and I truly wish that I could go back and experience listening to everything for the first time again.

The band's back catalogue is, in my opinion, the most diverse and exciting of any rock band. Starting out as a Steven Wilson psychedelic solo project inspired by "Dukes of Stratosphear" before becoming a full band in the early 90's, the discography is chock full of absolutely incredible musical journeys that you will want to repeat over and over. There is a real sense of development and evolution in the band's discography - each record has something new to it that makes it stand out. In particular, 'Stupid Dream', 'In Absentia' and 'Fear of a Blank Planet' represent the very best of the band's catalogue - these records are all groundbreaking works of art that I don't think I will ever tire of listening to.

'Trains' and 'Lazarus', I feel, are two the of the most underrated pieces of music I have ever experienced. If these songs had been written by a band with more mainstream exposure or label backing, they would have almost certainly made the band a household name. Unfortunately for Porcupine Tree though, they never seemed to be able to fully break through to the mainstream, despite having so many tracks that are "commercial" enough to be enjoyed by a wide audience. 'Lazarus' in particular - I have friends that have no knowledge of progressive rock who absolutely adore it and that's because it is simply a wonderful and beautiful song. Perhaps it is the limited mainstream exposure that places the band in a special place for those loyal fans that have found them.

Anyway, there's another big reason why Porcupine Tree has had such a profound effect on my life.

Throughout college, I wasn't enjoying many of the subjects I'd chosen and I'd often have lots of free time just doing nothing meaningful. My father noticed my obsession for this band with the very strange name and made an off the cuff suggestion that I create a fan site for them. I decided to do exactly that. At college I was learning bits and pieces of web design so I luckily had the ability to put something together that didn't look completely awful!

In October 2010, I was gifted tickets to see Porcupine Tree live in concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Little did I know at the time that this was to be the band's final ever performance. Performing material mostly drawn from 2009's "The Incident", the band stormed through a set that included many throwbacks to earlier in their career. They ended with an incredible one-two punch of 'Arriving Somewhere But Not Here' and 'Trains', the latter of which blew the roof off. At the end of the show, I knew I had to do something to let others know about what I'd just witnessed. Just how exactly were this band so under the radar of most people?!