– PJ Harvey – In concert at Gdynia,Poland – June 26, 2016 – Polski Radio –
PJ Harvey this morning. Never predictable, always an adventure and coming to Los Angeles next week. Variously referred to as one of the 500 Greatest Artists of All Time and a terminal eccentric, PJ Harvey has been creating her own path of astonishment since 1988.
This concert, from her 2016 Hope Six Demolition Project tour, came a few days after her Glastonbury appearance and ahead of her U.S. tour, the first one she did in over 6 years, but only performing in L.A. and New York.
Her 2016 tour had her on 15 dates, including several on the West Coast.
PJ Harvey possesses an expansive contralto vocal range. She aims to not repeat herself in her music, which results in every album sounding different to her previous works. In an October 2004 interview with Rolling Stone, she said: “when I’m working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself … that’s always my aim: to try and cover new ground and really to challenge myself. Because I’m in this for learning.” While her musical style has been described as alternative rock, punk blues, art rock, and avant-rock, she has experimented with various other genres including electronica, indie rock and folk music.
Admittedly, PJ Harvey is not for all tastes. She can be inaccessible at times, as she always has been, and this makes it hard for her to be embraced by the mainstream – which is probably a good thing, as mainstream popularity brings mainstream pressures, and PJ Harvey has always been one to go exploring on her own terms, even if the audience is left guessing. But she has never made a bad album; very often, it’s the audience who needs to catch up. She makes albums that invite playing several times, sometimes over and over in one sitting.
Above the words and the music-making is the voice, and PJ Harvey has one of the most compelling and emotive voices in Rock.
Outside her better-known music career, Harvey is also an occasional artist and actress. In 1998, she appeared in Hal Hartley’s film The Book of Life as Magdalena—a modern-day character based on the Biblical Mary Magdalene—and had a cameo role as a Playboy Bunny in A Bunny Girl’s Tale, a short film directed by Sarah Miles, in which she also performs “Nina in Ecstasy”, an outtake from Is This Desire? (1998). Harvey also collaborated with Miles on another film, Amaeru Fallout 1972, which includes Harvey performing a cover of “When Will I See You Again”.
Harvey is also an accomplished sculptor who has had several pieces exhibited at the Lamont Gallery and the Bridport Arts Centre. In 2010, she was invited to be the guest designer for the summer issue of Francis Ford Coppola’s literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story. The issue featured Harvey’s paintings and drawings alongside short stories by Woody Allen. Her most recent artwork features in her second book of poetry Orlam.
In December 2013, Harvey gave her debut public poetry reading at the British Library. On 2 January 2014, she guest-edited BBC Radio 4’s the Today programme.
In October 2015, Harvey published her first collection of poetry, a collaboration with photographer Seamus Murphy, entitled The Hollow of The Hand. To create the book, Harvey and Murphy made several journeys to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C. Their experiences were documented in Murphy’s film A Dog Called Money, which was released in UK cinemas and online on 8 November 2019. The pair had previously worked together to create 12 short films for Let England Shake.
In April 2022, she published a book-length narrative poem titled Orlam.
Play loud – play often – Get ready for the weekend and get ready for Winter
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