Biography
Born in England, Gavin Harrison pursues work as a drummer, composer, and author. He serves as Porcupine Tree’s original and continuing drummer while also belonging to Pineapple Thief and having previously drummed for King Crimson. His recorded output reaches into the hundreds and encompasses sessions with Renaissance, Iggy Pop, Level 42, Kevin Ayers, Jakko M. Jakszyk, and Lisa Stansfield. His first release under his own name, Sanity & Gravity, surfaced in 1997. He launched a trilogy of collaborative albums with guitarist 05ric (Ric Byer) via the 2007 album Drop, which was followed by Circles in 2009 and The Man Who Sold Himself in 2012. Harrison functioned as one of King Crimson’s drummers from 2012 through 2022. Cheating the Polygraph appeared in 2015 and presented Porcupine Tree compositions performed by a large jazz ensemble. He became a full-time member of Pineapple Thief in 2018. In 2020 he and fusion bassist Antoine Fafard issued Chemical Reactions. Harrison rejoined the reconstituted Porcupine Tree for the 2021 album Closure/Continuation, and he paired again with Fafard in July 2024 on Perpetual Mutations.
Harrison entered the world in North Harrow, Middlesex, in 1963. His father Bobby had established himself as a jazz trumpeter who also played drums part-time. Gavin started drumming at the age of six. He departed school at 16 to begin working professionally and, three years later, toured North America with the progressive pop band Renaissance.
At 19 Harrison turned into a full-time session and touring musician, contributing to recordings by Gail Ann Dorsey, Tom Robinson, and additional artists. In 1988 he co-formed the global jazz group Dizrhythmia alongside bassist Danny Thompson, guitarist Jakko Jakszyk, and percussionist/vocalist Pandit Dinesh; the ensemble released a widely praised self-titled jazz/world fusion album on Island/Antilles. The next year he appeared on BJ Cole’s Transparent Music and Sarah Jane Morris’s self-titled debut while also touring with Iggy Pop in the mid-1980s.
In 1990 Harrison performed on keyboardist Dave Stewart and vocalist Barbara Gaskin’s second album, The Big Idea, and has participated on every subsequent release by the pair. He joined Incognito in 1991 and played on the hit album Inside Life, which yielded the global success “Always There” featuring vocalist Jocelyn Brown; he likewise belonged to the band’s lineup for the 1997 album Blue Moods. One year later he contributed to Kevin Ayers’s iconic Still Life with Guitar. Harrison subsequently worked in Italy, appearing on numerous albums and tours by Franco Batiato, Claudio Baglioni, Raf, Fiorella Mannoia, Eros Ramazzotti, and Projeto Cavani. He joined Level 42 briefly for what was described as their final tour. In 1995 he performed on Mick Karn’s widely praised The Tooth Mother and Cole’s The Heart of the Moment. He issued the first of several instructional volumes, Rhythmic Illusions, in 1996. His demanding schedule of sessions and tours persisted in 1997 with Soft Vengeance by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Jakszyk’s The Road to Bailina.
During that same year he released Sanity & Gravity, his debut album as leader; the large, rotating personnel included future Porcupine Tree colleague Richard Barbieri and bassist Mick Karn. In 1999 Harrison appeared with Lisa Stansfield on her soundtrack for the film Swing and accompanied her on worldwide tours across several later outings. His second book, Rhythmic Designs: A Study of Practical Creativity, came out in 2000, the year he also played on soul singer Lewis Taylor’s II and assumed the role of musical director for Artful Dodger.
Harrison received an invitation in 2002 from Steven Wilson, Barbieri, and Colin Edwin to replace founding drummer Chris Maitland in Porcupine Tree. He performed on In Absentia, XMII, Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet, and The Incident, and toured with the group extensively until its hiatus in 2010. In 2007 he and touch guitarist 05ric issued their first joint album, Drop; that year also marked Harrison’s initial victory in Modern Drummer magazine’s poll, a distinction he repeated through 2010. The following year he participated in a live, two-drummer version of King Crimson documented on August 07, 2008: Park West, Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Stormy’s Monday Selection, and Level Max. He additionally appeared on Wilson’s solo debut, Insurgentes, and collaborated once more with 05ric on Circles. The third and final 05ric/Harrison collaboration, The Man Who Sold Himself, emerged in 2012, as did Harrison’s contribution to the Fusion Syndicate’s self-titled debut; the studio supergroup featured numerous premier prog and fusion players, among them Billy Cobham, Percy Jones, Rick Wakeman, John Etheridge, and a dozen more.
Harrison and Antoine Fafard first collaborated with ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jerry Goodman on the bassist/guitarist’s classical/jazz fusion release Occultus Tramitis in 2013. Two years later, during a pause from King Crimson touring, Harrison delivered his second solo album, Cheating the Polygraph, arranging Porcupine Tree material for a jazz octet; the project received worldwide praise. Between 2014 and 2020 Harrison performed on stages worldwide with King Crimson, ultimately appearing on more than a dozen live recordings, including the 2016 release Radical Action to Unseat the Hold Of Monkey Mind. That year Dizrhythmia reconvened for Too. Harrison also made his first recorded appearance with Pineapple Thief on Dissolution and joined the band for a European tour that produced the live album Hold Our Fire. He attained full-time status in time to record 2020’s Versions of the Truth. He further rejoined Fafard to record the co-billed collaborative album Chemical Reactions with Goodman and the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra.
Porcupine Tree officially reunited in 2021 as a trio comprising Wilson, Harrison, and Barbieri. In November the group issued its first single, “Harridan,” to acclaim throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America. That year Pineapple Thief released the double-length Nothing But the Truth, which incorporated numerous compositions by Harrison. The following year Give It Back appeared, presenting reinterpreted Porcupine Tree songs. In June 2022 Porcupine Tree’s Closure/Continuation came out on Sony’s Music for Nations imprint; every concert date sold out within minutes. In July the band performed a show in Amsterdam that yielded 2023’s Closure/Continuation Live. Two years later Pineapple Thief released It Leads to This, while Harrison and Fafard reunited for Perpetual Mutations, an album leaning more toward jazz-rock fusion.
Harrison entered the world in North Harrow, Middlesex, in 1963. His father Bobby had established himself as a jazz trumpeter who also played drums part-time. Gavin started drumming at the age of six. He departed school at 16 to begin working professionally and, three years later, toured North America with the progressive pop band Renaissance.
At 19 Harrison turned into a full-time session and touring musician, contributing to recordings by Gail Ann Dorsey, Tom Robinson, and additional artists. In 1988 he co-formed the global jazz group Dizrhythmia alongside bassist Danny Thompson, guitarist Jakko Jakszyk, and percussionist/vocalist Pandit Dinesh; the ensemble released a widely praised self-titled jazz/world fusion album on Island/Antilles. The next year he appeared on BJ Cole’s Transparent Music and Sarah Jane Morris’s self-titled debut while also touring with Iggy Pop in the mid-1980s.
In 1990 Harrison performed on keyboardist Dave Stewart and vocalist Barbara Gaskin’s second album, The Big Idea, and has participated on every subsequent release by the pair. He joined Incognito in 1991 and played on the hit album Inside Life, which yielded the global success “Always There” featuring vocalist Jocelyn Brown; he likewise belonged to the band’s lineup for the 1997 album Blue Moods. One year later he contributed to Kevin Ayers’s iconic Still Life with Guitar. Harrison subsequently worked in Italy, appearing on numerous albums and tours by Franco Batiato, Claudio Baglioni, Raf, Fiorella Mannoia, Eros Ramazzotti, and Projeto Cavani. He joined Level 42 briefly for what was described as their final tour. In 1995 he performed on Mick Karn’s widely praised The Tooth Mother and Cole’s The Heart of the Moment. He issued the first of several instructional volumes, Rhythmic Illusions, in 1996. His demanding schedule of sessions and tours persisted in 1997 with Soft Vengeance by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Jakszyk’s The Road to Bailina.
During that same year he released Sanity & Gravity, his debut album as leader; the large, rotating personnel included future Porcupine Tree colleague Richard Barbieri and bassist Mick Karn. In 1999 Harrison appeared with Lisa Stansfield on her soundtrack for the film Swing and accompanied her on worldwide tours across several later outings. His second book, Rhythmic Designs: A Study of Practical Creativity, came out in 2000, the year he also played on soul singer Lewis Taylor’s II and assumed the role of musical director for Artful Dodger.
Harrison received an invitation in 2002 from Steven Wilson, Barbieri, and Colin Edwin to replace founding drummer Chris Maitland in Porcupine Tree. He performed on In Absentia, XMII, Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet, and The Incident, and toured with the group extensively until its hiatus in 2010. In 2007 he and touch guitarist 05ric issued their first joint album, Drop; that year also marked Harrison’s initial victory in Modern Drummer magazine’s poll, a distinction he repeated through 2010. The following year he participated in a live, two-drummer version of King Crimson documented on August 07, 2008: Park West, Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Stormy’s Monday Selection, and Level Max. He additionally appeared on Wilson’s solo debut, Insurgentes, and collaborated once more with 05ric on Circles. The third and final 05ric/Harrison collaboration, The Man Who Sold Himself, emerged in 2012, as did Harrison’s contribution to the Fusion Syndicate’s self-titled debut; the studio supergroup featured numerous premier prog and fusion players, among them Billy Cobham, Percy Jones, Rick Wakeman, John Etheridge, and a dozen more.
Harrison and Antoine Fafard first collaborated with ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jerry Goodman on the bassist/guitarist’s classical/jazz fusion release Occultus Tramitis in 2013. Two years later, during a pause from King Crimson touring, Harrison delivered his second solo album, Cheating the Polygraph, arranging Porcupine Tree material for a jazz octet; the project received worldwide praise. Between 2014 and 2020 Harrison performed on stages worldwide with King Crimson, ultimately appearing on more than a dozen live recordings, including the 2016 release Radical Action to Unseat the Hold Of Monkey Mind. That year Dizrhythmia reconvened for Too. Harrison also made his first recorded appearance with Pineapple Thief on Dissolution and joined the band for a European tour that produced the live album Hold Our Fire. He attained full-time status in time to record 2020’s Versions of the Truth. He further rejoined Fafard to record the co-billed collaborative album Chemical Reactions with Goodman and the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra.
Porcupine Tree officially reunited in 2021 as a trio comprising Wilson, Harrison, and Barbieri. In November the group issued its first single, “Harridan,” to acclaim throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America. That year Pineapple Thief released the double-length Nothing But the Truth, which incorporated numerous compositions by Harrison. The following year Give It Back appeared, presenting reinterpreted Porcupine Tree songs. In June 2022 Porcupine Tree’s Closure/Continuation came out on Sony’s Music for Nations imprint; every concert date sold out within minutes. In July the band performed a show in Amsterdam that yielded 2023’s Closure/Continuation Live. Two years later Pineapple Thief released It Leads to This, while Harrison and Fafard reunited for Perpetual Mutations, an album leaning more toward jazz-rock fusion.
Albums
