PO90 - Parallel or 90 Degrees was formed officially in 1996 just after Guy Manning left the band. This bizarre event was pretty typical of the way things happened in Po90. Andy Tillison Diskdrive and Sam Baine became the core of a musical project which had drifted in and out of existence since the demise of the Anarcho-Punk collective "Gold Frankincense & Diskdrive".

Andy Tillison Diskdrive

In 96 though, the duo made an album called "The Corner Of My Room" which became one of the first pieces of music to be ever made available on the Internet, although at the time it was released the internet was simply not fact enough for people to actually download the thing. As far as is known, only ONE person (Stuart Boocock) ever managed it, and that was with a whole pile of instructions of how to do it, daily reports on progress, and many flustering failures.

Settling for the more traditional approach of "Making a CD", the band became a 5 piece in 1997 with the following lineup.......

Andy Tillison Diskdrive - Keyboards & Vocals

Jonathan Barrett - Bass Guitar

Lee Duncan - Drums

Sam Baine - Keyboards

Graham Young - Guitar

PO90 at the CRS in Rotherham in 2000

The band made the album "Afterlifecycle" which was released on the UK progressive rock label "Cyclops" to very positive reviews in a time when the progressive music scene was being dominated by Sweden and the USA. Along with their more famous contemporaries "Porcupine Tree", Po90 spent the next few years creating muic which was respectful of and influenced heavily by 1970s progressive music, yet equally reliant on more modern sources. "We always think as much about Muse and Radiohead as we do about Yes or Genesis" said Tillison at the time.

The band's lineup was fluid, and during the years that followed all the musicians bar Tillison and Baine changed. Gareth Harwood spent some time as guitarist, Lee Duncan tragically died and was replaced by the young Alex King on drums, Ken Senior took over from Jonathan Barrett on Bass, and finally Dan Watts came to take over the guitar role for the last album.

Dan Watts

The group toured the UK and Holland on various occasions during their lifetime, made 5 full studio albums of original material and were throughout alert, challenging and of course highly under-rated. By the time Tillison & Baine toured later with THE TANGENT (website HERE) (an international progressive collective formed by Andy featuring members of the Flower Kings) that act had outsold Po90's 5 album and 6 year career in less than a month.

Sam Baine (Top) Alex King (Bottom)

Po90 being left on a back burner has always made me sad says Andy Tillison, "because it was a real band, real "pushing-forward-music" for now, it wasn't nostalgic, just reverential. " Lack of availability for the Po90 releases and quite the opposite for The Tangent made the Tangent the obvious priority for the common members.

Since 2002 when Po90 made abortive attempts to record an album behind a tight and demanding Tangent schedule, the group has rested inactive without ever formally declaring a split. The albums have drifted into deletion and only now in 2008 has there been any re-issue. The release of "A Can Of Worms" is for many the first chance to hear the music of a band who became part of something bigger, before it all happened, and a chance for those who were already converts to hear some of the stuff that got away.

In February 2009 the group announced that it would be returning to action after a long gap, and with a lineup based around the "Exotic Ways To Die" alignment of the band, the four piece band of Tillison, Alex King, Dan Watts and new bass player Matt Clark began work on a new album and rehearsals for live dates. By August 2009 the quartet had written and produced their first album for 8 years. "Jitters" shows that they have lost none of their edge.... it could be argued that they've actually sharpened it. 8 dynamite songs, the first gigs on the horizon... here we go again!