The Pineapple Thief at Rockhal

In 1999, Bruce Soord started The Pineapple Thief in Yeovil as an outlet for his own songs. More than 25 years and 16 studio albums later, Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree and King Crimson is behind the drums.

The Pineapple Thief play the Rockhal Club on Sunday 21 March 2027. Doors at 19:15.

Bruce Soord has been writing for this band since the late 1990s, and the arrival of Gavin Harrison on drums turned a good songwriting project into something closer to a proper progressive rock band. Quiet, precise, and much heavier live than on record.

Standing, in the Club. Rockhal opened ticket sales on 11 September, so this one has been out a while.

Who are The Pineapple Thief?

The Pineapple Thief are an English progressive rock band, founded in 1999 in Yeovil, Somerset, by songwriter and producer Bruce Soord, who started it as an outlet for his own music. More than 25 years and 16 studio albums later, the line-up is Soord on vocals and guitars, Jon Sykes on bass, Steve Kitch on keyboards and Gavin Harrison, of Porcupine Tree and King Crimson, on drums.

Their songs move from hushed, delicate passages to wide, immersive soundscapes, and critics often compare them to Porcupine Tree, Radiohead and Tool. An early song, “Snowdrops”, even turned up on the American television series The Hills in 2007.

Their records

• Tightly Unwound (2008): the album that helped relaunch the Kscope label.
• Someone Here Is Missing (2010): cover artwork by Storm Thorgerson.
• All the Wars (2012): recorded with a 22-piece orchestra and choir.
• Your Wilderness (2016): the first with Gavin Harrison on drums, plus Supertramp’s John Helliwell on clarinet.
• Dissolution (2018)
• Versions of the Truth (2020)
• It Leads to This (2024): number 20 in Germany and number 2 on the UK independent albums chart.
• Far and Wide (2026): released on 9 October 2026, after the band signed with InsideOut Music.

Songs to know before the night: “Snowdrops”, “Nothing at Best”, “Someone Here Is Missing”, “All the Wars”, “Demons”, “It Leads to This” and “New World Order”.

The Far and Wide tour

The 2027 tour runs to 42 dates, from Glasgow on 4 March to Tampere in Finland on 2 June, with the new album at its heart and older favourites alongside. The band wrote and recorded Far and Wide with the stage in mind: more rock than before, still progressive, with direct, hard-hitting songs. Soord kept the studio close to the live sound, reasoning that “you don’t need more than two guitar parts at any one time”.