PJ Harvey
Based on Wikipedia: PJ Harvey
In April 1991, a three-piece band took the stage at a skittle alley in Charmouth Village Hall for what would become one of rock music's most legendary disastrous debuts. By the end of the first song, nearly all fifty audience members had fled. A woman approached the drummer mid-performance and shouted: "Don't you realise nobody likes you! We'll pay you, you can stop playing, we'll still pay you!"
The guitarist and vocalist that night was a twenty-one-year-old woman from a farm in Dorset named Polly Jean Harvey. Within two years, she would be hailed as one of the most important rock artists of her generation. Within a decade, she would become the only musician ever to win Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize twice.
A Dorset Childhood Steeped in Music
Harvey was born on October 9, 1969, in Bridport, a small market town on England's southwest coast. Her parents, Ray and Eva, owned a quarrying business on Ham Hill—a site that had been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, when Celtic tribes built a massive hillfort there. The family farm in Corscombe, where Polly grew up, sat amid rolling green hills that would later infuse her songwriting with a distinctive sense of English landscape and history.
Her parents were avid music fans who filled the house with blues records, Captain Beefheart's experimental rock, and Bob Dylan. They regularly hosted informal concerts and get-togethers, counting among their oldest friends Ian Stewart, the legendary pianist who had been a founding member of the Rolling Stones before being pushed out of the spotlight because his appearance didn't fit the band's image. Stewart continued playing on their records for decades and was called "the sixth Stone."
At Beaminster School, the young Harvey received guitar lessons from Steve Knightley, a folk singer-songwriter who would later achieve considerable success with the duo Show of Hands. As a teenager, she picked up the saxophone and joined Bologne, an eight-piece instrumental ensemble run by composer Andrew Dickson. She also formed half of a folk duo called the Polekats, writing some of her earliest material for them.
After finishing school, Harvey enrolled in a visual arts foundation course at Yeovil College. The question of whether she would pursue art or music remained genuinely open.
The Automatic Dlamini Years
In July 1988, Harvey joined Automatic Dlamini, a Bristol-based band with an unusual name and a rotating lineup. The band had been founded five years earlier by John Parish, a guitarist and composer who would become the most important musical collaborator of Harvey's career. She met him in 1987 through their mutual friend Jeremy Hogg, the band's slide guitarist.
With Automatic Dlamini, Harvey played saxophone, guitars, and backing vocals. The band toured extensively, performing throughout Western Europe—including shows in both East and West Germany during the final years before the Berlin Wall fell, as well as Spain and Poland—to support their debut album, The D is for Drum. A second European tour followed in the summer of 1989.
The band recorded a second album, Here Catch, Shouted His Father, between late 1989 and early 1990. This is the only Automatic Dlamini recording to feature Harvey, but it was never officially released. Bootleg versions circulate among collectors.
Harvey later reflected on this period with characteristic honesty: "I ended up not singing very much but I was just happy to learn how to play the guitar. I wrote a lot during the time I was with them but my first songs were crap. I was listening to a lot of Irish folk music at the time, so the songs were folky and full of penny whistles and stuff. It was ages before I felt ready to perform my own songs in front of other people."
She credits Parish with teaching her how to command a stage. "After the experience with John's band and seeing him perform I found it was enormously helpful to me as a performer to engage with people in the audience, and I probably did learn that from him, amongst other things."
Parish's girlfriend at the time was a photographer named Maria Mochnacz. She and Harvey became close friends, and Mochnacz would go on to shoot and design most of Harvey's album artwork and music videos, playing a crucial role in shaping her visual identity for decades to come.
An Unanswered Letter to Slint
In 1991, the American rock band Slint released Spiderland, an album that would eventually be recognized as one of the most influential records of the 1990s. On the album sleeve, they printed a request for female singers to contact them.
Harvey wrote to them. But Slint had already broken up before the album even came out. The band members' mental health had deteriorated during the album's creation, and they parted ways immediately after finishing it. Harvey's letter went unanswered, and she formed her own band instead.
One wonders what might have happened if the timing had been different. Slint's austere, tension-filled sound was not entirely unlike the direction Harvey would take her own music—though she would bring a ferocity and theatricality that was entirely her own.
The Skittle Alley and Beyond
In January 1991, Harvey left Automatic Dlamini to form her own band with two former bandmates: Rob Ellis on drums and Ian Oliver on bass. She named the group the PJ Harvey Trio, rejecting other names because "nothing felt right at all or just suggested the wrong type of sound." Using her own name also gave her flexibility to continue as a solo artist if necessary.
Then came that catastrophic debut at the Charmouth skittle alley in April. A skittle alley, for those unfamiliar with British pub culture, is a long narrow room designed for playing skittles—a bowling-like game with wooden pins that has been played in England since the fourteenth century. It was not, traditionally, a venue for confrontational art rock.
Undeterred, the trio relocated to London in June 1991 when Harvey applied to study sculpture, still uncertain about whether music or visual art would become her primary focus. They recorded demo songs and sent them to record labels. Too Pure, an independent label known for nurturing alternative acts, agreed to release their debut single "Dress" in October 1991.
The reception was extraordinary. John Peel, the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ whose support had launched countless careers over four decades, selected "Dress" as Single of the Week when he guest-reviewed for Melody Maker. He admired, he wrote, "the way Polly Jean seems crushed by the weight of her own songs and arrangements, as if the air is literally being sucked out of them ... admirable if not always enjoyable."
Too Pure provided minimal promotion for the single. Critics noted that Melody Maker had more to do with its success than the record label did. A week after its release, the band recorded a live session for Peel's radio show, performing "Oh, My Lover," "Victory," "Sheela-Na-Gig," and "Water."
Dry and the Weight of Critical Adoration
In February 1992, the trio released "Sheela-Na-Gig" as their second single. The title references the architectural carvings found on medieval churches throughout Britain and Ireland—grotesque female figures displayed in explicit poses, their purpose and meaning debated by scholars. Some think they warded off evil spirits; others see them as warnings against lust; still others interpret them as fertility symbols. Harvey's song used the imagery to explore themes of female sexuality and the male gaze, delivered with a raw intensity that was startling.
The following month came their debut album, Dry. The international critical response was overwhelming. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana later listed it as his sixteenth-favorite album of all time in his posthumously published journals. Rolling Stone named Harvey both Songwriter of the Year and Best New Female Singer.
A limited edition version of Dry was released as a double LP, containing both the finished album and a complete disc of demos called Dry Demonstration. The band received significant attention at the Reading Festival in 1992, further cementing their reputation.
Major labels took notice. Island Records, part of the PolyGram empire, signed the trio amid a bidding war in mid-1992. In December, they traveled to Cannon Falls, Minnesota, to record their follow-up album with Steve Albini, a producer and engineer famous for capturing raw, unpolished sounds. He had worked with Pixies on Surfer Rosa and would later produce Nirvana's In Utero.
The recording sessions took place at Pachyderm Recording Studio, a residential studio built in a barn on the rural Minnesota prairie. The isolation was intentional—artists could focus entirely on the music without urban distractions. The sessions produced Rid of Me, released in May 1993.
Rolling Stone's review captured the album's essence: "It is charged with aggressive eroticism and rock fury. It careens from blues to goth to grunge, often in the space of a single song."
The Trio Falls Apart
The album was promoted by two singles, "50ft Queenie" and "Man-Size," along with tours of the United Kingdom in May and the United States throughout the summer of 1993. But during the American leg, the band began to fracture.
Deborah Frost, writing for Rolling Stone, noticed "an ever widening personal gulf" between the members. Harvey herself was quoted saying: "It makes me sad. I wouldn't have got here without them. I needed them back then—badly. But I don't need them anymore. We all changed as people."
Despite the personal tensions, footage from live performances was compiled into a long-form video called Reeling with PJ Harvey. The band's final tour came in August 1993, when they opened for U2. After that, the trio officially disbanded.
In September 1993, Harvey appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno—her final appearance as a trio member on American television—and performed a solo version of "Rid of Me." The symbolism was appropriate. When 4-Track Demos, a compilation of demos from the Rid of Me sessions, was released in October, it marked the beginning of her solo career.
By early 1994, Paul McGuinness—the manager who had guided U2 from Dublin pub band to global phenomenon—had signed on to manage Harvey as well.
To Bring You My Love
Free from the constraints of a fixed band lineup, Harvey began exploring collaborations with different musicians. Her third studio album, To Bring You My Love, released in 1995, brought together an impressive group: John Parish, her old collaborator from Automatic Dlamini days; Mick Harvey, the multi-instrumentalist from Nick Cave's Bad Seeds (no relation to Polly, despite the shared surname); and Jean-Marc Butty, a French drummer. All would continue working with Harvey for years to come.
The album also marked her first collaboration with Flood, the British producer born Mark Ellis, who had worked with everyone from Depeche Mode to U2 to Nine Inch Nails. His production approach—layered, atmospheric, rich with texture—gave Harvey's blues-influenced songs a new dimension. The record incorporated strings, organs, and synthesizers alongside her guitar.
Rolling Stone described it vividly: "Harvey sings the blues like Nick Cave sings gospel: with more distortion, sex and murder than you remember. To Bring You My Love was a towering goth version of grunge."
The lead single, "Down by the Water," became an unexpected modern rock radio hit in the United States. The music video received heavy rotation on MTV—this was the mid-1990s, when MTV still played music videos—and became Harvey's most recognizable song. The album sold over a million copies worldwide, including 370,000 in the United States alone.
The accolades piled up. The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, USA Today, People, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times all named it Album of the Year. Rolling Stone declared Harvey Artist of the Year. Spin ranked it third on their list of the ninety greatest albums of the 1990s, behind only Nirvana's Nevermind and Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet.
In 1996, Harvey received her first Grammy nominations: Best Alternative Music and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Down by the Water."
Into the Shadows
Success did not bring contentment. After To Bring You My Love and an experimental collaborative album with John Parish called Dance Hall at Louse Point, Harvey began writing new material during what she described as "an incredibly low patch."
The songs that emerged introduced electronic elements into her work for the first time. Rob Ellis, the drummer from the original PJ Harvey Trio, rejoined her band. Flood returned as producer. The sessions stretched from 1997 into April 1998, resulting in Is This Desire?
Released in September 1998, the album received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance. Its lead single, "A Perfect Day Elise," peaked at number 25 on the UK Singles Chart—her highest charting single to that point, a modest achievement that nonetheless represented commercial progress in her home country.
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
In early 2000, Harvey began work on her fifth studio album with Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey. She wrote the songs in her native Dorset, in Paris, and in New York City, and the album's lyrics reflected a love affair with New York that gave the record an unusually romantic, even optimistic quality compared to her earlier work.
The sound was more accessible too—mainstream indie rock and pop rock rather than the abrasive art-blues of her earlier records. Radiohead's Thom Yorke appeared on three tracks, contributing lead vocals on "This Mess We're In," a duet that paired two of the most distinctive voices in British alternative music.
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was released in October 2000. It became both a critical and commercial success, selling over a million copies worldwide and charting in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
The album won a BRIT Award nomination for Best Female Artist and two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Female Rock Performance. Harvey was nominated for the Mercury Prize, Britain's most prestigious music award, given annually to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland.
She won.
The awards ceremony was held on September 11, 2001. Harvey was on tour in Washington, D.C.—one of the cities attacked that morning—when she received word of her victory. "Quite naturally I look back at that and only remember the events that were taking place across the world," she said later. "To win the prize on that day—it didn't have much importance in the grand scheme of things. It was a very surreal day."
That same year, Q magazine conducted a readers' poll of the 100 Greatest Women in Rock Music. Harvey topped the list.
Uh Huh Her and the Return to Solo Recording
For three years, Harvey worked on various collaborations while also developing material for her sixth studio album. When Uh Huh Her was released in May 2004, it marked a return to the stripped-down approach of her earliest recordings. For the first time since 4-Track Demos in 1993, Harvey played every instrument herself—with the exception of drums, again provided by Rob Ellis—and served as the sole producer.
Critics gave the album generally favorable reviews, though some found fault with the production quality. It debuted at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry within a month of its release. Harvey embarked on an extensive world tour that lasted seven months.
The Mercury Prize, Twice
Harvey continued releasing albums and collaborating with other artists throughout the following decade. In 2011, she released Let England Shake, an album that grappled with English history, war, and national identity. The songs referenced World War One, the Gallipoli Campaign, and the weight of imperial history.
The album won the Mercury Prize.
This made Harvey the only artist in the prize's history to win twice. No one else—not Radiohead, not Arctic Monkeys, not Dizzee Rascal, not any of the other luminaries of British music—had achieved this. The Mercury Prize judges explicitly state that past wins should not count against nominees, but for twenty years the prize had never gone to a previous winner. Until Harvey.
Recognition and Honors
Over her career, Harvey has accumulated an impressive collection of accolades. Beyond her two Mercury Prizes, she has received a BAFTA Award, eight BRIT Award nominations, eight Grammy Award nominations, and two additional Mercury Prize nominations for albums that didn't win. Rolling Stone gave her three major honors: Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter in 1992, and Artist of the Year in 1995. She received the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the NME Awards.
In the 2013 Birthday Honours—the list of recognitions announced each year on the monarch's official birthday—Harvey was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to music. The MBE is the fifth level of the Order of the British Empire, below Knight or Dame Grand Cross, Knight or Dame Commander, Commander, and Officer. It recognizes distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services outside the Civil Service, and work with charitable and welfare organizations.
Harvey has referred to John Parish as her "musical soulmate." He has contributed to and sometimes co-produced most of her solo albums, toured with her repeatedly, and recorded two collaborative albums where he composed the music and she wrote the lyrics. Their creative partnership has now spanned more than thirty-five years.
The Farm Girl Who Cleared the Skittle Alley
There is something fitting about Harvey's trajectory—from the daughter of quarry owners on an Iron Age hillfort, learning guitar from a folk singer while Captain Beefheart played on the family stereo, to one of the most acclaimed rock artists of her generation. The through-line is a refusal to compromise.
The woman who shouted at her drummer that April night in 1991 was wrong, of course. People did like her. But Harvey's willingness to clear the room—to make music so intense, so uncompromising, so raw that casual listeners fled—is precisely what made her great.
She has never made easy listening music. Even her most accessible album, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, has an edge to it, a darkness beneath the romance. Her voice can be a whisper or a howl. Her guitar can be gentle or brutal. She has always insisted on both possibilities.
From that skittle alley in Charmouth to two Mercury Prizes and an MBE, Polly Jean Harvey has proven that the most interesting path is rarely the one that keeps everyone comfortable. Sometimes you have to clear the room to find the people who actually want to hear what you have to say.