PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey (Polly Jean Harvey) was born in Dorset, England, November 9, 1969. A child of a stonemason and sculpture, she was raised at a farm. Since her early years, the girl revealed a strong interest in music and worked hard to master saxophone, cello, guitar and drums. With a great confidence in her skills, she did not hesitate long to join the local bands Boulogne, and Polekats. Playing someone’s songs, Polly learned at the same time to write her own material. In a while, PJ became a member of the Bristol band Automatic Dlamini also composed by John Parish and Rob Ellis. In the new group, Polly would sing and play guitar and saxophone. The musicians arranged two streaks of concerts in Europe and recorded the album From A Diva To A Diver (1992). But before it hit the stores, the girl relocated to London and formed in 1991 the PJ Harvey trio along with bassist Ian Oliver and drummer Rob Ellis. In April of the same year, they gave their first concert and soon replaced Ian with Stephen Vaughan. In October 1991, the British label Too Pure released the single Dress, and in February 1992 the second single Sheela-Na-Gig became also available. The debut releases were warmly welcomed by the audience and highly evaluated by the critics, which boosted them up to the charts.

In March 1992, Harvey’s band issued their first full length work under the title Dry. Press was very happy with the album and named it one of the year’s best efforts. Rolling Stone named Polly the best sing writer and singer of the year. The girl’s personality became even more attractive after she was featured topless on New Musical Express. Feeling the right moment, the trio launched several tours visiting a number of European states and the USA. Among their most prominent gigs of that period was the performance at the 1992 Reading festival. Following that, the band escaped to the studio to work on the new album, Rid Of Me, recruiting producer Steve Albini. In August 1993, the group gave a joint concert with U2. Shortly after that, Rob quit the band due to the differences with Polly. Late in 1993, Island released a compilation of PJ Harvey’s demos and Polly’s songs that did not fit the outfit’s format. As a Brit Awards nominee, she performed The Rolling Stones song Satisfaction together with Bjork at the ceremony early in 1994.

In February 1995, PJ Harvey started a solo career offering the album called To Bring You My Love. Soon, she recorded vocals for Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads. Between the releases of the albums Dance Hall At Louse Point (1996) and Is This Desire (1998), Polly tried herself in cinematography playing in Sarah Miles’ movies Amareu Fallout 1972, and A Bunny Girl's Tale. She also appeared as Maria Magdalena in Hal Hartley’s 1999 film The Book Of Life. 2000 saw her deliver another album, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, featuring several songs recorded together with Thom Yorke from Radiohead. This effort brought her a Mercury Music Awards victory, the first one grabbed by a woman. After a long hiatus, Polly recorded the Uh Huh Her album, all songs penned and all instruments played by her alone. The 2006 effort, White Chalk, celebrated her unexpected turn towards ballad music. In 2009, Harvey released another album that received the title A Woman A Man Walked By, made in cooperation with John Parrish. It was their first collaborated work since 1996.