Not as ridiculous as calling Porcupine Tree one of the worst bands to come out of England in recent times because they kinda sound like Pink Floyd.

IMO, Steve Wilson is brilliant, i'm addicted to Porcupine Tree right now

Porcupine Tree sounds a lot like Pink Floyd on Sky Moves Sideways and the stuff before it has a resemblance...But In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet sound very different than Floyd although they show the influence of Floyd and a number of other bands...Blackfield doesn't really sound like Floyd at all to me...I agree that it helps your success to know you are good because confidence is a huge factor in making good music imo.

Have you heard the huge amount of side projects this guy has I.E.M and Bass Communion have been two recent listens for me. Very Space Rock-esque.

I've only heard Blackfield, but I'll definitely look into some of the ones you mentioned Lee.

As far as Porcupine Tree is concerned, I listened to their entire discography with headphones last night, I don't really recall any bizarre dreams or anything, but it was good music to listen to while I slept.

A lot of bands start out imitating someone else, that's always how it is.

The Beatles started out as just another skiffle group, David Bowie started out as a writer of novelty pop/folk songs, The Beastie Boys started out as a generic hardcore band, Genesis started out as a Monkees type pop group, Nirvana started out as a Melvins clone, Radiohead started out as a wannabe grunge band.

Of course all these artists ended up finding their own voices, I think PT found theirs starting with Stupid Dream.

A very talanted man with many talanted fingers in many great sounding pies!

What's this about Steven Wilson putting his fingers in someones pie?

Have you seen the DVD? It's obvious he put his fingers in someone's piehole before performing "Arriving Somewhere ... ".

with his production on Opeth's Blackwater Park he has definatly put his influence in (ok maybe not his fingers!) as there are some Porcupine Tree styles in there but he does play guitar, piano and vocals as an additional musician.