| Stretched on your Grave presents.... |
| PJ Harvey |
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Polly Jean Harvey formed the first incarnation of PJ Harvey in 1991 in Yeovil, Somerset, England, where she grew up. The first incarnation of the PJ Harvey band was a Guitar/Bass/Drums outfit of three. Pj Harvey realeased her (their) first single 'Dress' on the indie label 'Too Pure'. The next single, the rockin' 'Sheela-Na-Gig', was released in the February of 1992. PJ Harvey had begun an impressive critical rise, paving the way for the bands highly anticipated debut album, 'Dry', (a song called 'Dry' appeared on Pj's secomd album 'Rid of Me' I do not know if it was written in connection anyway with the first album). The album 'Dry' was released in March of 1992. During this period PJ signed to Island Records. Island Records released 'Dry' in North America in June of 1992. The debut by PJ Harvey was hailed tremendously as an astonishing debut. In August of 1992 PJ Harvey embarked on a five city tour of the staes, the first American tour. 'Dry was placed, by Rolling Stone Magazine in America, amongst the years best albums and named Polly Jean Harvey as Best Songwriter and Best New Female Singer. It made such Top Album lists in many other magazines and newspapers around the world. The second album 'Rid Of Me', was produced by Steve Albini, well known for his production work with the band Nirvana amongst others. 'Rid Of Me' was released in May, 1993 and was given a four start review in the LA Times newspaper. The band embarked on a world tour in May coursing through Britain, Europe, the USA and Japan. PJ Harvey also opened for U2 in a number of European stadium shows. These concerts convinced Paul McGuiness and Sheila Roche (who manage U2), to work with PJ Harvey. In 1994 Polly introduced her solo work with 'Four Track Demo's', a group of demo recordings of songs from 'Rid Of Me' and 5 unreleased numbers. In 1995 Polly (now completely solo) released what many have considered to be her masterpiece, her next album 'To Bring You My Love'. Such outstanding tracks as 'To Bring You My Love', 'C'mon Billy', 'Down By The Water', 'The Dancer', etc, were deeply disturbing and emmotive. Around this time PJ Harvey was booked to tour Australia and New Zealand for the first time, but pulled out at the last moment. 1998 was also a very exciting year for PJ and her fans, she had a starring role in the Hal Hartley film, 'The Book of Life', and a new album, 'Is This Desire?'. 'Is This Desire?', whilst being another highly acclaimed hit album for PJ Harvey, was not quite as well recieved as the others, but was still greatly applauded and successful. Her next album was released around September/October of 2000, it was thought by many to be happier than her previous albums, which were always described as "dark", but still had "PJ Harvey" stamped all over it. 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea', was released to critical acclaim and high commercial success. Polly also toured Australia and New Zealand, finally!!, for the first time at the beginning of 2001, as part of the 'Big Day Out' festival, she also performed a few concerts outside of the festival, those concerts were sold out in days. Polly sang a version of the title track on Gordon Gano's debut solo album 'Hitting The gRound', and will be returning to Australia in Jnauary 2003. |
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