The only artist to win the Mercury Prize twice, PJ Harvey has spent three decades reshaping British rock with raw intensity and reinvention.
MOODS · intense · raw · literary · confrontational · brooding · experimental · cathartic · atmospheric · visceral · haunting
BIOGRAPHY
Polly Jean Harvey was born on October 9, 1969, and grew up on a sheep farm in Yeovil, England, where she learned guitar and saxophone as a child. She began performing professionally in 1988 with local band Automatic Dlamini, whose frontman John Parish became a long-term collaborator. In 1991 she formed the trio PJ Harvey, releasing Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993) before continuing as a solo artist.
Her 1995 album To Bring You My Love was widely hailed as a masterpiece, and Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) became a major commercial success, earning her the first Mercury Prize given to a woman. She won the Mercury Prize again for Let England Shake (2011), making her the only two-time winner, and received an MBE for services to music in 2013. She has collaborated with artists including Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Tricky and Josh Homme, and worked repeatedly with producer Flood.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
PJ Harvey's career is defined by restless reinvention: from the visceral punk-blues of Dry and Rid of Me to the polished ambition of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and the war-haunted folk of Let England Shake. Her willingness to shift sound and persona album to album, while retaining a fiercely literary and confrontational voice, has earned sustained critical acclaim, multiple Mercury Prizes, and admiration from peers like Kurt Cobain, who named Dry among his favourite albums. Few artists have matched her combination of longevity, critical respect, and genuine artistic risk.
GEORGE'S PLAYS
First time on the station.
PLAYED ON WOKE1
