Lovers of chick rock will no doubt clap their hands in glee at the news of iconic rocker PJ Harvey landing down under for a whistles top tour.
Sydney Festival today announced that multi-award winning artist PJ Harvey will be in the line-up for Sydney Festival 2012, as part of a national tour. Harvey will play Sydney’s State Theatre on January 18 and 19. Limited presale tickets on sale October 17.
Last in Australia in 2008, Harvey is back with a second Mercury Prize and a new album, Let England Shake.
Recorded in a church in her native Dorset, Let England Shake explores music and instrumentation while examining her country’s past of blood and sacrifice on foreign battlefields and at home. The lyrics return, time and again, to the matter of war, the fate of the people who must do the fighting, and events separated by whole ages, from Afghanistan to Gallipoli. Let England Shake is filled with the mystery and magnetism in which Harvey excels.
In particular, Harvey’s lyric-writing has arrived at a new, breathtaking place, with the focus placed most on the human perspective of every story. The album’s depth and power won her the Mercury Prize, the most prestigious music award in the UK. Harvey is the first artist to win twice.
For her 2012 tour, Harvey will feature songs from Let England Shake along with songs from previous albums, backed by her band, which includes Mick Harvey, John Parish & Jean-Marc Butty.
From the outset, PJ Harvey has commanded attention. She formed a bass/drums/guitar trio in 1991 in Dorset, releasing two albums before beginning a career as a solo artist. Let England Shake is her eighth solo album. Harvey has collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians including Thom Yorke, Mark Lanegan, Björk, Hal Wilner, Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes, Sparklehorse, Marianne Faithfull, Tricky, Josh Homme and Nick Cave. In addition to her musical career, Harvey paints, draws, sculpts and writes poetry and prose. Harvey recently guest-designed Francis Ford Coppola’s art and literary magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story. The issue featured previously unseen artwork, sculpture and drawings by Harvey.
As well as the two Mercury Prizes (the first was in 2001 for Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea), Harvey has had seven BRIT Award nominations, six Grammy Award nominations and two further Mercury Prize nominations. Rolling Stone awarded her Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter for her debut album ‘Dry’ and in 1995, Artist of the Year. In 2011, NME Awards honoured her with Outstanding Contribution to Music.
