Hello!

As you can probably tell, I am new to this site; I thought i'd share my experience!

On October the eighth, I went to an awards ceremony at the British Library which was public called the Pen Pinter Prize. This is an award that celebrates both the life of Harold Pinter (Nobel Prize British playwright and poet) and a writer who exhibits the sense of freedom that he did. The person receiving the prize was Carol Ann Duffy. I thought I'd go, as the tickets were cheap and I love Harold Pinter's works.

When I got there, I had the privilege to ride in a lift with Mr. Pinter's widow, Antonio Fraser and then finally wait in the lobby for about half an hour. I was sitting opposite a bar, in a fairly large room, with a moderate congregation of people. Fifteen minutes into the waiting, someone walked over to the bar, who I seem to reckognise. I'm not sure how long it took my to register who was amongst these people, heading to the bar: a matter of seconds perhaps.

It was amongst the most staggering moments I think I will ever experience! PJ Harvey was by the bar drinking water, on her own. There was no question about it, me and my mum both reckognised who it was.

There are times where you just have to embarrass yourself! We instantly got up and walked up to her, asked for a picture: she said that she always now refused because she fealt uncomfortable. Which was very understandable-- so we asked for her autograph. She accepted, and she signed an organiser that was in my bag! I wish I could've said more, but it was too euphoric to say anything logical: so I complimented the 'really goodness' of her signature...

Something that made it better was the fact that I was wearing a Let England Shake t-shirt, and she pointed it out, it was like: 'SHE NOTICED MY DEVOTION T_T'. After a while of thin conversation, we exchanged 'nice meeting yous' and we departed!

The rest of the awards ceremony was very expendable, mainly reveling in her presence. Carol Ann Duffy read several war poems out, with a scottish guy on a flute. It was almost laughably bad when juxstaposed with Polly's lyrics on Let England Shake. Met Carol Ann Duffy, rather pretentious, sour lady. I did notice that she was with a friend, a bald man, quite tall- who looked strangely like Rob Ellis...

She obviously went to Pinter's ceremony because of Harold Pinter and the apparent influence he had on her work. She was really very friendly and nice; I did feel kind of bad for drawing attention to her, but I guess seeing PJ Harvey in London live is rare enough. To randomly see her in one of my favorite places in London when she was just visiting was overwhelmingly lucky. I still find it hard to believe that I've met the person who wrote some of my favorite albums of all time! In particular, Let England Shake, which I will probably regard for the rest of my life as the greatest collection of music in regards to war. A true artist who over the years has developed into a wordsmith!

lucky lucky you

_________________
Snetta

yeah, good point! and very lucky to wear that T-Shirt
Amazing, I'll probably say something wrong if I see her in the same bar...

and it was one day before her birthday...

I would feel so conflicted in a situation like that.
I'd probably scream a little and start to cry or something when I saw her. I'm extremely shy and can't even approach people I know in public, let alone her. At the same time I'd hate myself if I didn't because that's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I've read multiple times she doesn't like pictures taken but I'd feel compelled to ask anyhow I'm sure. I'd almost definitely cry when she said no, not because I wasn't getting one but because I'd feel so stupid for asking at that point (maybe I'd get one that way out of pity or something though, ha).
I'd probably want to show her the tattoo I have (the birds she drew that are on the disc to Let England Shake) but I wouldn't want her to think I was an obsessive weirdo for getting something of hers tattooed on me.
On the way home I'd be in this scary, crazy state of sobbing and giggling or screaming or god knows what.
It would be a complete mess.
At the same time, it would be completely amazing and almost definitely the highlight of my life.
You're very lucky, congratulations.

Yep, no chance of that, eh?

I remember being at the New Yorker event she did a few years ago, which included some Q&A that I hadn't anticipated. I didn't get to speak, as it took me too long to come up with a question I thought was remotely interesting/appropriate (about her having worked with Marianne Faithfull and inspiring women in rock, or somesuch), but there was a steady stream of dumbstruck folk silenced by her just saying "hello" to them!!

That wasn't water, it was vodka! Haha.

Met her in my dreams the other night. It was cool and totally NOT dirty, I swear.