Billy Corgan: "I love P.J. Harvey, and I have complete admiration for her, but, c’mon, me behind P.J. Harvey on guitar? I mean, c’mon, that’s a fucking asshole, in a beard, in New York, who has to put me there to make some sort of statement.”
Andy Bell(Beady Eye, Erasure): "I plump for university in Southampton, but some four months before I start there I go to my first gig in the city, when Ben Rowlett, Dom Fry, Kieron Maguire (maybe) Andy Bell and myself go to see PJ Harvey at Southampton Guildhall (another city, another venue with the same name - seriously, though, never confuse Portsmouth and Southampton - people get angry)."
Sven Erik Kristiansen(Maniac)-(Mayhem, Skitliv): "I've seen Maniac watching P.J. Harvey play live and really getting into it after Mayhem finished playing at a festival where both artists (amongst many others) were performing."
Dave Navarro: "Also, when I think of PJ, I think about Dave Navarro (whom I had a huge crush on at the time) declaring that he was hell-bent on marrying her the first time that her met her."
Jeff Buckley: "Jeff: I want to see Belly, PJ Harvey and Morphine. - Interviewer: And R.E.M.? -Jeff: Can't stay that long, I have to go to Lyon. But i got to see Michael. Mister beautiful."(07/95)
Vernon Reid(Living Colour): "Writing this article I have been listening alternately back and forth to the new records from drummer Brian Blade and the singer-guitarist P. J. Harvey, two artists that give a damn about risk management, and are forging fearlessly ahead in their own respective searches for authentic pulsing, emotional experience. Harvey’s record Is This Desire? is HUNG UP. Obsessed. The women in her songs don’t care about who knows that they’re staring into the headlights of Doomed Love. She knows and doesn’t care. The sheer thrill of panic that comes from having your every thought ruled by another’s existence is the dangerous stuff that romance is made of and the fabric that binds Is This Desire? P. J. coos and howls and whines and whispers these songs in an untheatrical realness that disturbs. Who is she singing to? This Is Her Best Record Yet. Imagine Portishead as not just clever, but driven. Star-crossed and damned."
Daniel Johns(Silverchair): "PJ Harvey, I Have not stopped listening to her latest album. I think it's fabulous." (03/99)
Jeff Ament(Pearl Jam): Lists 'Stories' as the number one album of the decade and 'the letter' as the 11th best song of the decade
Richard Hughes(Keane): " I love PJ Harvey. When we were first with Island Records, we were in the same building, in the basement. The director of the label brought us down to show us the studio, but I actually think that he was trying to show off PJ Harvey, who was there to do recordings. It worked! We signed with them after about a week."
Juliana Hatfield: "Before I went into make BWYA , I had been obsessively listening to PJ Harvey's first album Dry , which was new. I loved it, loved her unique approach, loved what she was doing. One of the fascinating things Harvey had done on the album was to utilize five/four time in a really compelling way. Dry was a cool, raw, sexy, slinky rock record and, like the rest of the album, the couple of songs in five/four time were cool, raw, sexy and slinky. They weren't prog-sounding or slick or music-school geeky, and neither did they come across as haughty or condescending; it wasn't an intellectual experience, listening to Dry. The songs in five - "Water" and "Hair" - were groovy and catchy, without the listener having to count along in order to get into the groove, and this was fascinating, and quite an achievement. With my "Spin the Bottle", I challenged myself to do what PJ Harvey had; to write a catchy, driving, danceable pop song ina weird, unpopular time signature. I wanted people to dance and sing along even though the song was in five. Moreover, I wanted my song to be relatable, with respect to the subject matter - more relatable than Harvey's Kind of tortured, goth damsel-in-distress lyrics(which I loved, and which, more than any female artist in a long time, spoke to and of my experience as a young woman).
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