Hello,

I would like to tell you an interesting story about the Prague concert.

The first night of the concert in Prague I was standing in the first row. It was exhausting. Since I had predicted this beforehand, I bought a ticket for the second night from the balcony to watch it sitting down. Before the concert started, a middle-aged couple sat next to me. The man was coughing and squeezing his inhaler from time to time. After the concert started, he filmed a video continuously at the beginning. Then he got up and walked around the back of the balcony, I guess he got bored of sitting. His wife (I was assuming they were couple) was watching the concert and looking at the reaction of the standing audience from the balcony. I thought they were a very nice couple. When the lights came on at the end of the concert, the orange wristbands on their arms caught my attention and we smiled mutually with the woman as we got up for applause.

Afterwards, when I looked at the man's face, it looked familiar and I realised at that moment. I asked the woman if they are related with Polly and when she said yes, I turned to the gentleman and said I think you are PJ Harvey's brother and he nodded his head yes. Obviously it was an awkward moment because I guess they didn't give much opportunity for someone to recognise them, and rightly so. Their faces also looked a little surprised. I immediately said that since my high school years I am a big fan of Polly and that I recognised him because I had seen his photos on the internet and that PJ Harvey had a very important place in my heart and I was travelling from Turkey for these concerts. I asked them that they would send to her my love and greetings. They nodded their heads and replied saying of course.

The question crossed my mind, "Can you introduce me to her?" but as a very long time PJ Harvey fan, I assumed after the concert she wouldn't do such a thing and in order not to disturb them, I could only ask them to send my greetings and love to Polly. I was a bit shocked because Saul Harvey and his wife were standing in front of me. Saul was videotaping the bowing of Polly and the band on the stage after White Chalk, and that time Saul even asked me if they were going to perform again and I told him that I had seen it last night show and as I know the setlist I told him that they weren't going to come back to perform. We wished each other good night and parted smiling.

It was a very nice memory for me. Maybe it was a surprising (or maybe strange in a way) situation for them and maybe they told Polly about it. I hope they did. I just wanted to share this memory with you.

Regarding the concert, on the first night, as I was in the front row, while Angelene was playing, an audience member threw something like a cardigan in front of Polly, maybe because s/he liked the song very much, maybe out of admiration or maybe because of being drunk, then between songs Polly whispered something in the ear of the crew member who took her guitar and the guy quietly took the outfit off the stage. Another incident was that someone next to me pulled out a piece of paper (I think after The Garden). Polly slowly came forward and read the paper and took her guitar pick from the table and threw it towards the person holding the paper. Honestly, I thought why didn't I think of it, but it was a nice moment.

I don't need to say anything about the concert, as always Polly, the band and the songs, everything was great.

That is lovely, good for you to have such a special memory of the concert. And kudos to you for to act so gracefully.
Can't say the same about people throwing things on the stage, that is a weird trend that is going on (mostly during pop gigs) which is disturbing and concerning. Of course this is not on the same level, but recently there have been several incidents of popstars having phones and full glasses thrown at them in the face by fans, just to get their attention. Hope it never happens to her.

I went to the second Warsaw gig last night. Brilliant performance, PJ & the band were stellar and in top form, and it was a pleasure to see her again in a smaller venue up close (I was in the second row)—the Hope Six shows I went to in 2016/17 were either in a big sports arena or at an outdoors festival.

Unfortunately they played a shorter set than usual—they cut “Lwonesome Tonight” from the first part, then skipped both “The Words That Maketh Murder” and “Send His Love to Me” in the second one, and encored with only “White Chalk”. I’m not sure why, initially I thought they made a decision to cut “Lwonesome Tonight” on the go, after experiencing a technical issue at the beginning of the show (more on that later) but no, as the evening went on it became clear it was pre-planned. Maybe it had something to do with Polly saving her voice? She did sound incredible but I could see her drinking a lot of hot tea between the songs and using some sort of a throat spray so maybe she was feeling a bit under the weather and didn’t want to push it?

Anyway, the show was still 20+ tracks, over an hour and a half long so I can’t really complain (especially since I finally got to hear “The Garden” live!). Polly and the band were in very good spirits—all smiles, laughs and little waves, such a contrast to the sternness of the previous tour—and the performance itself was very high-energy, especially the triple-punch of “Man Size” > “Dress” > “Down by the Water” near the end.

I was also surprised that some of the highlights of the night were tracks that aren’t necessarily in my top 5 of I Inside…, such as “All Souls” or “A Child’s Question, July”—they really blossomed in the live setting and made me eager to revisit the album more. And it really impressed me how rousing and energetic “The Colour of the Earth” was—far from a simple interlude, the boys got the whole crowd stomping and clapping along.

And yes, there was also a technical glitch right at the beginning of “Prayer at the Gate”, when Polly was standing waiting for the band to start the song. As the ambiance and weird squeaky synth kicked in, it turned out that Jean-Marc Butty’s electronic drumpad that triggers some of the samples wasn’t working properly so after some initial confusion Polly addressed the crowd and asked for a few minutes to try and fix this, which basically meant the descent of her crew onto the stage with the musicians looking over their shoulders and some funny audience banter from Polly (“I bring you some update… we’ve tried turning it off and on again but it didn’t help”), until after 3 or 4 minutes they finally got it to work, and it was all smooth sailing from then on.

lovely story!




yeah, i don't really get it, i prefer fans that try/tried to get her attention with cheesy "Polly i love ye" (man n. 1), " no i love ye more!" (man n. 2) between songs, which was awkward but funny.



basically the 2023 version of this: https://youtu.be/rADQYN380nA?si=EEN-WeKRn234R0N5

Oh yes, it made me think about this video, too! And standing so close to the stage I could actually hear Polly unmiked, hunched over Jean-Marc, sincerely ask the tech guy “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” before she stepped up to the microphone to announce to the audience it didn’t work so it seems it’s her favourite way of handling tech malfunctions lol



In general I feel like the pandemic messed up with some people’s ability to act respectfully in a social setting, I have seen a few assholes suffering from Main Character Syndrome at various gigs this year. Nothing as severe as throwing shit on stage thankfully, but FFS, you’re not the only one in the audience, behave!

short clip of it here https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy1zhbLIszF/?img_index=2


also she did a short reading from Orlam on Cillian Muprhy's Limited Edition

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001rr97 from 1:04

They doodled over the dress for the final night of the tour:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzGtAyMIBqP/


The language is all so final! will they be doing something different next year?

I genuinely wish that when she comes to the US for touring next year, she comes alone, as she did for White Chalk. Much cheaper for her! And more entertaining for me!

Would love to see PJ on tour. Sadly, I'm states-side. She did a poetry reading in New York, which is but a few hours of driving time away from me, but there's was no real indication that it would be a concert. Oh well.

It's been pretty well confirmed that she will be touring the US in 2024, I belive in the Autumn. I'm in The US also and I kept up with the recent Euroupe/UK Tour via online reviews, tons of YouTube uploads, and I've been happily listening to 8 or so full-show audio recordings I managed to download - they are all excellently performed and I will make every effort to see her in the States if it's at all possible. She is performing at a very high level, it's such a treat to see and hear.

Paris show up on Arte this Wednesday at 8pm CET:

the premiere is online now.



Great quality, as expected.