The first band in which Polly Jean played was called Automatic Dlamini. She joined them in 1988, when she was not twenty yet. Automatic Dlamini had been founded by John Parish five years before, and while many great musicians passed through the band, it is interesting that there were also two men that she founded the PJ Harvey trio after the Automatic Dlamini adventure.
Rob Ellis and Ian Oliver are a drummer and bass guitar player with whom she recorded the albums ‘Dry’ and ‘Rid of Me’. She still works with Ellis and John Parish. A frequent guest on her stage is also one of the two most important badseeds – Mick Harvey.
Ambitions can cover what is important, and the older we are it does not become any simpler. There are also greed and envy and the disgusting things that follow; they surround us and we do not manage to understand what has happened and where all of those once wonderful people, without whom our days were unimaginable, have disappeared.
When you have those that you can count on by your side, the dark days can not cause any permanent damage. To start your rock-and-roll path in John Parish’s band, to play the sax, the guitar and sing on their first albums, and thirty years later still create with the same people, that is what counts. So that we do not end asked when we have said farewell to our own versions that had such a clearly set rhythm of their own. And the blues as well.
Dark Days (live)