Sputnik Music Forums - Featured Artist #11: PJ Harvey

[COLOR=DarkRed][SIZE=4][FONT=Arial]PJ Harvey[/FONT] [/SIZE][/COLOR] (born Polly Jean Harvey on 9th October 1969) was raised with a varying music collection including Billy Bragg, Captain Beefheart and Bob Dylan, as well as some Blues. Polly took this influences and her parents backing on to a long and still fruitful music career.
Where this career began was as a teenager playing firstly in an instrumental 8-piece then within a folk trio. But soon moved to slightly larger things when she joined Automatic Dlamini, the two other members being John Parish and Rob Ellis, (These two men would also stick by her throughout her future solo career guest appearing on most of her albums).
Automatic Dlamini toured widely through Europe and released the album 'From A Diva To A Diver' before splitting in 1992.

Before Automatic Dlamini split however, Miss Harvey's solo career started rolling. I begins in 1991 when she moves to London to concentrate on her other love of hers....art. However Polly ends up trying to live the dream of hers, playing and singing in a band.
The band 'PJ Harvey' was soon formed with Ian Olliver (bass) and close friend Rob Ellis (drums). Ian however is soon replaced by Stephen Vaughan.
PJ and band soon record demos and pass them on to the label, Too Pure, who sign them immediately and release the song 'Dress'. John Peel soon becomes the biggest PJ Harvey fan and invites them to record a live session on his radio show which is also later released on Too Pure.

With much support and eagerness to hear more the band enter the studio in late 1991 to record the first full length album 'Dry' which is released March 1992.
This album boosted PJ harvey to a new level with vast tours across Europe and the U.S. along with their first festival appearance at Reading. Polly also has her first front cover with the NME and was seen as best songwriter by Rolling Stone.
With all this new pressure worldwide from the press and new found fans alike waiting for a second album Polly ends up having a nervous breakdown whilst in London and relocates nearer to her childhood home in Somerset.

'Rid of Me', PJ Harvey's second album, was a slight step in another direction. This was mainly due to the producer Steve Albini (Pixies, Breeders). It is recorded live and with a heavier guitar sound that is typical of Albini's work as a producer.
'Rid of Me' is widely acclaimed by media and fans and furhter touring ensues. Due to success of the album '4-Track Demos is released', which features demo versions of the songs on the second album plus a handful of unheard songs.
In August, the band support U2 on the UK leg of the 'Zooropa' tour. PJ Harvey also records a special Peel Session including songs still to be released, which includes 'Claudine, The Inflatable One' and 'Primed & Ticking'.

Following the Rid of Me tour, Ellis and Vaughn parted ways with Harvey, and she recorded her third album as a solo artist, augmented by producer Flood, bassist Mick Harvey, and guitarists John Parish and Joe Gore. Harvey developed a richer, bluesier sound with the expanded band, and the resulting record, To Bring You My Love, was hailed as a masterpiece by many critics upon its February 1995 release. Harvey spent all of 1995 touring the album, and spent the following year in relative seclusion.

During 1996/7 she was relatively quiet except for a handful of releases she appears on and a handful of gigs with a temporary band including her old friends again John Parish and Rob Ellis. Polly also appears in the film 'Amareu Fallout 1972' directed by Sarah Miles.

In 1998 Polly stars in another Sarah Miles film 'A Bunny Girl's Tale' soon after continues her solo where is left off in 1995. In September, the new PJ Harvey album is released. 'Is This Desire?' produced by Polly, Flood and Head, including performances from John Parish, Mick Harvey and Rob Ellis. Two singles support the album: 'A Perfect Day Elise' and 'The Wind'. PJ Harvey is nominated for a BRIT award and a Grammy (for the third time!). Polly also became the only artist to have received three nominations for the Mercury Music Prize. Another world tour is undertaken to support 'Is This Desire?'.

In April 1999, Polly and John Parish play a concert supporting 'Echo & The Bunnymen' for John Peel's birthday at the Improv Theatre, London. The venue only holds a few hundred and those lucky enough to be there are treated to renditions of older PJ Harvey songs which have not featured on recent tours.
Polly also gets involved with Channel 4's Music Of The Millennium project towards the end of 1999. Polly is filmed citing Bob Dylan's 'Desire' as one of her albums of the millennium and also gives a live performance of Bob Dylan's 'Shot Of Love' on the night of the show.

Inspired by her time spent in New York earlier in her career, and at home in Dorset, Polly writes, records and produces her next album with these places in mind. Produced by Polly, Mick Harvey and Rob Ellis, 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' is released in October 2000. The album also features the talents of Thom Yorke (Radiohead), having been friends with Polly for a long time.
A band is put together including Polly Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Rob Ellis, Margaret Fiedler (Laika) and Tim Farthing. The band play a few shows in Europe and the U.S.

2001 brings much more promotion for PJ. The band fly to Australia to join the Big Day Out Festival and the band play a short European tour before embarking on another successful world tour supporting U2 in the summer. Due to the on-going success of 'Stories From The City...', Polly and the band are asked to tour the U.S. for their own shows, they agree to a short headlining tour that sells out in a day!
'Stories From The City...' wins the prestigious 2001 Mercury Music Prize but there are no immediate celebrations as the band are told of the news whilst they are in their hotel in Washington (U.S.) on the fateful day of Sept 11th. The awards ceremony, held on that day, is a sombre affair and Polly makes her poignant and thankful speech from her hotel room overlooking the burning Pentagon building.
The band continue with their commitment to the U.S. tour and returned to the UK to play three final UK shows, again all sell-outs. Promotion is concluded with a fantastic performance on the BBC's Later with Jools Holland. Recorded on Polly's birthday, the band perform 'Big Exit', 'Wills Song', 'This Is Love' and an extra performance of 'The Whores Hustle' which was not shown.
2002 however is much quieter for Polly as she writes for another album.

'Big Day Out' tour sees Polly perform many dates in Australia and New Zealand, just for the fun of it! Four new songs are debuted: 'Shame', 'Who The ****' and 'Desperate Kingdom Of Love' and 'Bows & Arrows'.
2003 sees a few more shows in Europe (including V Festival) ending with a fantastic show at the Tate Modern in London, the first concert to be held there!
'This Is Love' used for a huge television advertising campaigh for T-Mobile.
The end of 2003 brings a fantastic release, 'Desert Sessions 9 & 10' - a collaboration of artists, including Polly, brought together by Josh Homme from The Queens Of The Stone Age. An album, a single, a video and a live performance on 'Later.... with Jools Holland'. (Desert Sessions 9 & 10 being a personal favourite CD of mine)

Polly Jean Harvey's last album, Uh Huh Her, appeared in summer 2004, coinciding with another string of tour dates, including British and European festival appearances at Glastonbury, T in the Park, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and Spain's La Primavera festival. Stateside, Harvey was scheduled to join the revived Lollapalooza festival for select dates, joining Morrissey and Sonic Youth on the main stage. Upon the cancellation of that festival, however, she mounted a solo tour of the States with select opening acts.

After successfully touring 'Uh Huh Her', PJ jokingly (but seriously to the media) 'quit' her live career by making an announcement onstage at a gig, performing in front of 350 competition winners at Studio 287 in northern France, on December 17th 2004, when she announced: "This is the last show I will ever play." The bill also included The Libertines (whose last show it was incidentally).

However she did return playing solo at All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2005, at the Camber Sands Holiday Camp. This ATP was curated by Vincent Gallo. Polly Jean is also due to play later this year at The Eden Sessions in Cornwall on August 1st.

[U][B]Discography[/B][/U] (as the band PJ harvey, not including other projects, compilations etc)

[B]Albums:[/B]
Uh Huh Her
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
Is This Desire?
To Bring You My Love
4-Track Demos
Rid of Me
Dry

[B]Singles[/B]
You Come Through
The Letter
This Is Love/You Said Something
A Place Called Home
Good Fortune
The Wind
A Perfect Day Elise
Heela
That Was My Veil
Interview
Promorock 4
Long Snake Moan
Send His Love To Me
C'Mon Billy
Down by the Water
Man-Size
50Ft Queenie
88 Lines About 1 Woman
Dry
Sheela-Na-Gig
Dress

Visit: [url]http://www.pjharvey.net/[/url]