The Pineapple Thief (TPT) (prog. rock, indie rock, new prog. / UK)

The Pineapple Thief is a progressive/indie rock band, started by Bruce Soord in 1999 in Somerset, England.

History:

Early years:

Founder Bruce Soord started "The Pineapple Thief" (TPT) as an outlet for his music back in 1999. Bruce released the debut Abducting the Unicorn on Cyclops records, which created enough to establish a small but loyal fan base. Soord returned to the Dining Room studios to work on the second album 137. During this time, several major labels started to take an interest, causing a delay in the release which arrived over two years after the debut. However it was probably the third album, Variations on a Dream that gave TPT the boost they needed, reaching out to yet more people all over the world, by which point TPT were consistently the top sellers on their label, Cyclops.

After this release in the spring of 2002 Bruce decided to form a band to take his music to the fans. The band consisted of his close musical friends - former university band mate Jon Sykes on bass, Wayne Higgins on guitars, Matt O'Leary on keyboards and Keith Harrison on drums. As a full band, they released 12 Stories Down in 2004, but Bruce Soord was unhappy with the final sound and re-recorded, remixed and changed some of the tracks before the release of 10 Stories Down in 2005. Matt O'Leary subsequently left the band, but Steve Kitch (who co-produced and mixed 10 Stories Down) joined to play keyboards.

Following the release of Little Man in 2006, the band released What We Have Sown in late 2007 as a final Cyclops release before being signed to Kscope, a division of Snapper Music.
Wayne Higgins left the band in March 2008, but the group continued as a four piece live act, playing gigs across Europe, Canada and the USA throughout much of the following years.

The Kscope years:

In May 2008, The Pineapple Thief launched the Kscope label with the critically acclaimed album, Tightly Unwound, which was marked by launch shows at Witchwood in Manchester on 17 May 2008 and at the Water Rats Theatre in London on 22 May 2008. The same day as the album's release, a mini-documentary filmed at The Half Moon, London, was released through the band's website, featuring interviews and two exclusive live tracks.
This was followed in 2009 by The Dawn Raids EPs and 3000 Days, a 2CD re-mixed and re-mastered collection of songs from their ten year history to date. In January 2010, their 2006 album, Little Man was also fully remixed by Bruce Soord and Steve Kitch and released through Kscope with new artwork. There are plans to gradually give all of their back catalogue the same treatment as the Cyclops albums are no longer available and sell for large sums in the second hand market. 2009 also saw them supporting Riverside on the UK leg of their European tour.
Someone Here Is Missing was launched at a show at Bush Hall, London on 19 May 2010, whose attendees included Kscope lablemates Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema. 
The album also features artwork by the legendary designer Storm Thorgerson, who is famous for creating some of the most recognisable artwork of the last 30 years including albums by Pink Floyd (Dark Side Of The Moon, The Division Bell, Pulse), Muse, Led Zeppelin, Biffy Clyro and Dream Theater. The album continues to nurture the band's trademark ‘bittersweet’ progressive sound.
2010 saw a number of European festival appearances and a full 2 week tour of mainland Europe. This was recorded and released as the download only album "Someone Here Is Live".
The band entered the studio in January 2012 to record their next album, which included (for the first time) a 22 piece orchestra and choir. "All the Wars" was released in September 2012 and followed by a UK tour.


Members:

Steve Kitch - keyboards
Bruce Soord - vocals, (guitars ? )
Jon Sykes - bass
Keith Harrison - drums

Past members:

Wayne Higgins - guitars
Matt O'Leary - keyboards

Discography:

Studio albums:

Abducting the Unicorn (1999)
137 (2001)
Variations on a Dream (2003)
10 Stories Down (2005)
Little Man (2006)
What We Have Sown (2007)
Tightly Unwound (2008)
Someone Here Is Missing (2010)
All the Wars (2012)

Note: "Abducting the Unicorn" was originally titled as "Abducted at Birth". It was later renamed due to the label requesting the title to suggest a connection to Soord's previous band, Vulgar Unicorn.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pineapple_Thief