PJ Harvey kommt im Juni nach Berlin!
____
Polly Jean – vielen wahrscheinlich besser bekannt als PJ Harvey – wird im Juni ihr einziges Deutschlandkonzert in der Zitadelle Spandau geben. Für uns ein Grund, kurz mal auszuflippen und uns der alten Zeiten zu erinnern, in denen nichts anderes auf dem Plattenteller oder im CD-Laufwerk liegen durfte als ihre Musik. Sie ist unumstritten eine großartige Gitarristin, Sängerin, Songwriterin und Persönlichkeit.
Ich stieg beim dritten Album „To Bring You My Love“ (1995) ein, welches ich erst 2004 entdeckte. Mit diesem Album kam der große Durchbruch: Nominierung für den Mercury Music Prize, zwei Grammy-Nominierungen, außerdem heimste sie den „Artist Of The Year“-Award vom Rolling Stone ein. Abgesehen davon erhielt das Album unzählige Auszeichnungen zum Album des Jahres. Auch die werte Queen Elizabeth II. hat diese „Leistungen“ anerkannt, indem sie PJ im Dezember 2013 mal eben den Titel „Member of the Order of the British Empire“ für ihre Verdienste um die Musik verlieh.
Lest hier einen Gastartikel (dieses Mal auf Englisch) von einem sehr großen Fan – vielen Dank an Dimitra für diese Ode an Polly. Vielleicht wird es auch einen Konzertbericht von ihr geben?
_______
Vorwort: Angela // Gastbeitrag: Dimitra
Goddess that has gotten a hold of my soul
___
I am not sure if artists realize the effect they have on our souls. Because they are real humans and they have to feel and act like a real human and not like the gods and goddesses that we make of them. And for every person there is that one god or goddess that has gotten a hold of our soul in those late night witching hours, and has been walking with us since then. That One for me is PJ Harvey.
Found „Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea“ while browsing in the only cd store of my small town. I have no idea what led my hand to take it but since that day I have been listening to it for 365 consecutive days and nights, even during sleep. Since the cd shop owner would not bother with my requests to order the rest of her discography I had to rely on the internet until I found a solution. It was the slow internet era, that means of needing a couple of days to download one song. I miss this era, it gave you the time to listen and re-listen a song in a non-consumeristic mode and realize the fine layers and hidden beauty in it. The first non-Stories From the City song that I heard (exclusively 24 hours for a couple of weeks) was „Down by the Water“. It sent shivers down my spine for reasons I could not understand. Strangely, it had a different hue to it than the colors of PJ I knew until then. This was my first encounter with what would prove to be that huge expressional and musical palette of Polly.
A journey to the depths of my soul
____
To spend that time with her was a journey to the depths of my soul. From the raw, explosive, unprocessed sounds of „Dry and Rid Of Me“ to the vibrating „To Bring You My Love“ with its amazing distortions and guitaristic parts. I started learning guitar with the ultimate purpose to play „C´mon Billy“. Till today I cannot make it sound right but at least I can happily play along most of her songs… Then comes a romantic half-crude half-ethereal enchanting „Is This Desire“, that would accompany my first crushes with the best description of being desperately in love at „Catherine“. And then again something different, the most solid and impeccable indie album, Stories. Not to mention the quest for B-Sides and collaborations that each and every one was a precious gem. All of those come always with a melancholic, poetic, sensitive and yet powerful approach.
[youtube_sc url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr1j3GfJuR4&feature=youtu.be“ width=“300″ height=“150″ autohide=“1″ fs=“1″]
Somewhere at that point I lost her. Well, I can never lose her totally, but I was not shaken to my core to the same extend, with her later albums. Because she expanded again her colors and swam in new seas. Her music got more refined and added on some more layers. I could see the brilliance of „White Chalk“ and „Let England Shake“, I could get it rough and strangely dark again with „Woman A Man Walked By“, but I could not get that connection again. Because by accepting that the 50ft queenie moved on to new seas, the way she fearlessly did every time would mean that I would have to give up all my teenage and youth self, which a part of it was painted with her colors. I was not ready to do that so I kept her old part with me. We spend many nights, me, Polly and the guitar (also named Polly). But time has passed and I slowly came to terms with me growing in time and space and slowly realizing that I can unstuck from my ideas and old selves. I can start exploring different seas and new emotions.
I think I am ready for her new late night poems again.
I am also ready to see her transforming from man-sized to 50 ft., live for the first time in my life!
PS: Thanks to my cousin for hunting down the DHALP across half London, some light years ago and Nikos for the Book of Life!
_______
Konzert 2016:
Montag, 20.06.2016 // 19:00 Uhr
Einlass: 17:00 Uhr
Zitadelle Spandau
Diskographie
Studioalben:
1992 – Dry
1993 – Rid of me
1993 – 4-Tracks Demo
1995 – To Bring you my Love
1998 – Is this Desire?
2000 – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2004 – Uh Huh Her
2007 – White Chalk
2011 – Let England Shake
Kollaborationen:
1996 – Dance Hall at Louse Point
2009 – A Woman a Man walked by
______
Foto: Pressematerial Loft Concerts
