PJ Harvey live in Manchester: a show full of pinch-yourself moments

Mid-way through PJ’s Harvey’s intimate gig in the grandiose gothic surroundings of Manchester’s Albert Hall, a new pedal board suddenly appears on stage. Moments later, for the first time in the evening, Harvey addresses the audience: “I’d like to bring to the stage a very special guest,” she says in her rich Dorset tones. It’s  The Smiths legend and local hero Johnny Marr, and the two duet on an emotive, stripped-back version of ‘The Desperate Kingdom Of Love’. The capacity audience watch on in an awed silence: it’s just one of many such pinch-yourself moments in a gig that reminds us just why Harvey is such a beloved and adored cultural titan.

Harvey hasn’t toured since 2017. In the intervening years between then and now, she left behind the often incessant, creatively-crushing album-touring cycle and turned instead to scores, soundtracks and poetry after she suffered a crippling period of writer’s block initiated by last album, ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’ – a draining work that saw her writing about war zones and areas of abject poverty. Her poetry collection Orlam arrived in 2022 and unlocked her creative zeal once more, paving the way for her latest studio album ‘I Inside The Old Year Dying’ – a group of poems adapted from Orlam and set to music.

The gig’s first half is dedicated to playing this new album in full and live. The record follows a young protagonist (Ira-Abel Rawles) navigating adolescence and impending adulthood. She lives in a wild landscape not dissimilar to the Dorset of Harvey’s youth and the parallels between the two-feel strong, even though Harvey has long resisted any autobiographical readings of her work. Live, however, that link feels more palpable: Harvey seems to inhabit the character completely.

Take the stunning ‘Lwonesome Tonight’, a song about a young girl who “yearns yet to ungirl” – someone who is uncomfortable in her own skin and with those gazing upon it. On stage, Harvey cuts a lone figure stood underneath a piercing spotlight in a long white dress, sometimes deliberately hiding her face behind her hands and in the process, hauntingly capturing Rawles’ – and likely her own – feelings of otherness as a woman in a world of male-gazes. It’s a feminist-punk theme that dates back to Harvey’s very earliest work – and one that still feels especially relevant.

Her performance is frequently theatrical. She paces up and down the stage, restless and aloof on songs about anxiety (‘Autumn Term’) and death (‘Prayer At The Gate’), while elsewhere she navigates the sparse, rustic stage set of Ian Rickman to perch on a chair, sit next to a school-like desk or kneel down by the banks of an imaginary river where she mimics touching the flowing water (‘Lwonesome Tonight’). Field recordings from Dorset echo out around the venue too – a bird song here, a flowing river there – and makes it feel as though you were walking around Dorset with Harvey.

After a brief interlude following the first half, Harvey returns for a second full of carefully curated material that linked the songs of her past with those of her present, complementing ‘I Inside…’ seamlessly. Harvey has never been one to pander to playing her hits, but here, the curation feels like a treasure trove for fans: full of easter eggs and special rarities.

Standouts include the gothy ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ and the haunting ‘Man-Size’, which are like fitting companions to ‘Lwonesome Tonight’ as the characters of both interrogate performative identities. Rarity ‘Dress’ from her debut album proves a much-loved hit, as does ‘Down By The Water’, a song that marked a seismic shift in Harvey’s earlier career (and of course, also featured heavily in Peaky Blinders).

The encore sees the return of the pedal pad and Marr, who joins Harvey for ‘C’mon Billy’ and ‘White Chalk’ – two moments that again silenced the audience. Harvey’s stunning falsetto awes on these songs, after being a frequent scene-stealer all evening. The encore feels like another of those special, pinch-yourself moments. It’s good to have her back.

PJ Harvey played:

‘Prayer at the Gate’
‘Autumn Term’
‘Lwonesome Tonight’
‘Seem an I’
‘The Nether‐edge’
‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’
‘All Souls’
‘A Child’s Question, August’
‘August’
‘A Child’s Question, July’
‘A Noiseless Noise’
‘The Colour of the Earth’
‘The Glorious Land’
‘The Words That Maketh Murder’
‘Angelene’
‘Send His Love to Me’
‘The Garden’
‘The Desperate Kingdom of Love’ (with Johnny Marr)
‘Man-Size’
‘Dress’
‘Down by the Water’
‘To Bring You My Love’
‘C’mon Billy’ (with Johnny Marr)
‘White Chalk’ (with Johnny Marr)

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