blog 2-PJ harvey

The best concert ever: as told by Mr Z

In 1994 or 1995, I crossed the Pennines from my home in Sheffield to Manchester, to see Tricky supporting P J Harvey. Both had released career-defining albums that year - Tricky's Maxinquaye, and Harvey's To Bring You My Love. As my two favourite artists, I was thrilled to discover them on the same bill.

Tricky went on first. Maxinquaye is already a darker and more experimental album than the Trip Hop he'd pioneered with Massive Attack, and on stage he pushed further, creating a menacing, almost oppressive atmosphere. Excellent, atmospheric, kinda scary stuff.

... and then Polly came on and blew him out of the water. She was mesmerising, performing the material as though demonically possessed, and following every song with a soft, shy, child-like "thank you". She played almost everything off the new album, and her backing band easily did justice to songs as disparate as Meet Ze Monsta and The Dancer.

The highlight for me, though, was Yuri G. Rid of Me has always been my favourite PJH album, and her performance of that track was brutal and exhilarating. I can still hear it, more than twenty years later.