PJ Harvey


Uh Huh Heroine


Pyramid Stage - Friday

Day-glo pink shoes visible all the way from Tom’s Field. Ripped black Spice Girls dress, with Geri Halliwell gurning out at us from just above waist level. No, it’s not a mid-90s Nicky Wire, the princess of proper guitar music has paid us a visit.

Fresh from the release of Uh Huh Her, PJ Harvey is riding high in a new incarnation, and her Glastonbury performance was arguably the acid test for this new form. And it’s a test she attacked with a characteristic frenzy, pouring on the usual deliciously outré fuzzed guitars and scuzzy bass like burning pitch.

Polly was on form, jerking like an electrified frog’s leg, letting coy smiles slip out half way through a line, wailing on occasion, striking jutting poses, strutting with darkly camp pomp – clearly having a lot of fun. One of the biggest roars of the night came, justly enough, for her impassioned rendition of the soaring, triumphant ‘Bad Fortune’. That’s just one example of the exuberance that was washing out from the Pyramid Stage in waves.

Bizarrely, journalists take her seriously – there was no chance of that happening at Glastonbury as Polly had a chuckle with the audience at points throughout the set. “I saw you yawning. Are you tired or what? I’ll try and be a bit more interesting.”

If, like the rest of the sane world, you’ve seen Polly live before, this is all to be expected. I don’t know about you, but I’m terrified by the prospect of Polly Jean Harvey “trying to be a bit more interesting”. How much more interesting can you get?

Peter Allen

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