I was lucky, I was working away from home, and so had no family commitments in the evening. In a city the size of Birmingham there was always some sort of gig on, and this night I landed on PJ Harvey at the seedy, run down, but glorious Hummingbird in Dale End.

PJ Harvey had come to my attention though John Peel’s evening show, her astonishing debut album and equally astonishing follow up “Rid of me” which she featured that evening.

Her music was as angular and wasted as her appearance, but her performance was emotional, aggressive and defiant, a three piece including  Steve Vaughan  on bass and Rob Ellis – drums, vocals,and  harmonium generating  an extraordinary sound. She reminded me of very early U2 circa their debut album, it is no co-incidence that their manager Danny McGuinness  went on to manage her.

Folk pervades her song writing, she performed a blistering cover of Dylan’s “Highway 61”. The haunting, insistent,  hypnotic  opening “Rid of me”  a superb statement of intent which she struggled to better as the set unfolded, despite the obvious merits of “50ft Queenie” and “Water”. With only two albums worth of material , mostly three minute songs , the set was understandably modest lasting about 75 minutes with no encore, but what she lacked in quantity she generously compensated for with quality. She looked exhausted at the end, and so were we, a performance that was jagged, ragged, lacerating and sexy.

The crowd  was 100% indie and two thirds male despite Polly’s feminist credentials and message. She doesn’t offer the sassiness of Chrissie Hynde or poppiness on Blondie, where she fits I am not entirely sure. What I am sure of is that no female rock performer bettered that night that I had seen or subsequently saw

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Setlist

Rid of Me

Naked Cousin

Primed and Ticking

Highway 61 Revisited

Yuri-G

O Stella

Dress

Wang Dang Doodle

Me-Jane

Victory

Man-Size

Snake

Sheela-Na-Gig

50ft Queenie

Rub ’til It Bleeds

Water