Chart entered : 29 February 1992
Chart peak : 69
Number of hits : 16
P J occupies a fairly unique niche in the British music scene. It's not easy to remain a cult artist for a quarter of a century but she's managed it . Although she hasn't troubled the singles chart for over a decade and never broke into the Top 20 her albums still sell and she remains a critics' favourite.
Polly Jean Harvey was born in Dorset in 1969. She was brought up on a farm and played in bands at school before going to Yeovil College to study visual arts. In 1988, she joined the Bristol-based band Automatic Diamini as an extra guitarist, saxophonist and backing vocalist. They played a semi- acoustic folk blues with a Chris Rea-soundalike singer in John Parish. She joined too late to play on their first album and their second was never released but she is on a handful of tracks on their third, "From A Diva To A Diver " released in 1992.
By that time she'd quit to form her own trio with bassist Ian Oliver and drummer Rob Ellis although she remained on very good terms with Parish. They soon moved to London to allow Polly to study sculpture at Central St Martin's College. They sent out demos and got taken up by an independent label, Too Pure.
They released their first single "Dress" in October 1991. It's a murky blues rock number with a Dolly Parton-ish lyric about a woman putting on an uncomfortable dress to please her man. The drums sound completely out of tempo at the beginning and end of the song but otherwise it's quite an infectious chugger not a million miles away from Kings of Leon's Molly's Chamber. Peel got behind the single as did most of the music press but it didn't chart.
"Sheela-Na-Gig" was partly inspired by the medieval stone carvings of female figures with open legs , the precise significance of which is still debated by historians. Polly uses it to tell a tale of sexual rejection for being too forward and carrying the threat of disease. She plays on the word wash, retaliating to the man's fears of her uncleanliness with a quote from the South Pacific song I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair . Clocking what else was going on at the time, the song has a much more grunge-like sound with tense verses and an explosive chorus and quiet/ loud dynamics. I probably didn't hear it more than once at the time but it sounds pretty good today.
Funny how it seems every woman I've seriously dated has been really into Harvey, and her music has never done anything for me (much like her one-time beau, Cave). Perhaps a clue in there, somewhere.
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