PJ

PJ Harvey: A Biography
'PJ Harvey On Tour: Please Leave Quietly' , is available from May 1st and marks the release of PJ Harveys first ever DVD. PJ Harveys own thoughts on music DVDs have always remained mixed:
I have always found film footage of concerts extremely boring; usually filmed all on one night, with a collection of mixed positions and uninteresting lighting often an uninspired night is captured, as the performers are terrified stiff, knowing that the filming is taking place.
But PJ Harvey found in director Maria Mochnacz, a shared perspective. Their filmed document follows Harvey's tour through Europe and the USA in support of seventh album 'Uh Huh Her' [2004] and offers an intimate and insightful look into a world of touring, performing and travelling. Speaking about Marias involvement, PJ Harvey explains:
I knew that if I were to make a live document on film I wanted to avoid these things. There was only one person I could have entrusted these wishes to; Maria Mochnacz. She is a film-maker/photographer I have worked with for almost 20 years, and we have reached a level of dialogue and comfort with each other where ideas can flow easily.
Live performances taken from the tour are combined with behind-the-scenes footage and material. Stage sets are constructed and dismantled, sound-checks take place and recording studios are explored. PJ Harvey shares her thoughts and feelings about the process of touring through unique video diary footage, giving a very personal account of life on the road. As PJ Harvey furthers:
I find being on tour to be disjointed, dis-orientating, and de-stabilising. Nothing is fixed. Everything changes daily and this is what I wanted people to feel and see. To sense a little of what it is like for me. Marias film captures this. It is, for me, the experience, very accurately shown.
Featuring two previously unreleased tracks, Uh Huh Her and E?ol, the cameras are also on hand to capture contributions from crew members working on the tour, giving a complete picture of the day-to-day experience of touring. Extras include a unique 28 minute interview with Harvey which sees her share her thoughts on writing, recording and performing.
From the outset, PJ Harvey has commanded attention. Polly Jean Harvey formed the bass / drums / guitar trio in 1991 in Dorset and by autumn had released the debut single, Dress, on indie label Too Pure. With a second single, Sheela-Na-Gig, in February 1992, Harvey had begun an impressive critical climb, which set the stage for a highly anticipated album release the following month. Dry was hailed as an astonishing debut, not just in the UK but worldwide and especially in the United States, where Rolling Stone named Harvey Best Songwriter and Best New Female Singer.
In 1993, PJ Harvey signed to Island Records and began work on a follow-up album. The band went into the studio with Steve Albini in Minneapolis and the resulting album, Rid Of Me, was released in early '93. The album was supported by a lengthy world tour, drawing increasingly wide audiences and Harveys first Mercury Prize nomination. However, by the end of the tour, Polly made the decision to dissolve the original trio and explore working with other musicians. The album 4-Track Demos was released in the autumn of 1993, which comprised of 14 songs, a mixture of unreleased material and Harveys own demos for Rid Of Me.
To Bring You My Love followed in 1995, an eclectic and starkly original album. She enlisted a variety of musicians to play on the album, including John Parish (who co-produced along with Flood and Harvey), keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman and guitarist Joe Gore. The tour which followed saw Harvey explore a theatrical edge to her live performance. She received her second nomination for the Mercury Music Prize and was nominated for two Grammies, received '1995 Artist Of The Year' awards from Rolling Stone and Spin and gained album of the year acknowledgements across the board.
Recording her fifth album, Is This Desire?' in London and Dorset, Harvey once again co-produced the album with Flood and worked with Rob Ellis from the original P J Harvey line-up. It was released in September '98 and featured 12 new tracks. It attracted plaudits on both sides of the Atlantic and gained nominations for The Brits and The Grammy Awards.
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, the much anticipated follow-up to Is This Desire? was released in October 2000. The album, produced and performed by P J Harvey, Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey, picked up the Mercury Music Prize in 2001, the first album by a female artist to win the award. Described by the NME as a magnificent, life-affirming opus Stories was supported by a lengthy world-wide sellout tour.
'Uh Huh Her' followed the hugely successful Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea After a summer of live dates - including appearances at the V Festival, the Eden Project and the first rock concert at Tate Modern - Harvey finished work on 'Uh Huh Her' in the autumn of 2003. The album was written, performed, recorded, mixed and produced by Harvey, who chose Head to assist in additional recording and mixing and Rob Ellis, long time collaborator, to play drums and percussion on the album. Multi-instrumentalist Harvey played everything else.
Extra-curricular projects include soundtrack work on Basquiat, Stella Does Tricks, The Cradle Will Rock & Six Feet Under and an appearance as Mary Magdalene in Hal Hartley movie The Book Of Life. In 1996 she worked with John Parish on the album Dance Hall At Louse Point where her words accompanied the music of John Parish for both the album and a live accompaniment to the Mark Bruce Dance Company production of the same name. She has collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians, duetting with Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Tricky, How Gelb of Giant Sand, Pascal Comelade, Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes and appearing on Sparklehorse album Its A Wonderful Life.
More recently, she joined Queens of the Stoneages Josh Homme on his critically acclaimed Desert Sessions project [2003] and worked with Mark Lanegan (also of QOSTA) on his recent solo album. Harvey produced the debut album by American artist Tiffany Anders and also wrote, recorded & produced material for Marianne Faithfulls last album Before The Poison In addition to her musical career Harvey has exhibited sculpture in galleries across the country and has had poetry published.
www.pjharvey.net
March 2006