Polly Jean PJ Harvey MBE (born 9 October 1969 Bridport, Dorset, England) is an English musician and singer-songwriter.
Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined Bristol band
Automatic Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist and saxophone player.
In January 1991, following her departure from
Automatic Dlamini, Polly Jean Harvey formed her own band with former bandmates
Rob Ellis (drums, backing vocals) and
Ian Oliver (bass). Harvey decided to name the trio PJ Harvey after rejecting other names as nothing felt right at all or just suggested the wrong type of sound.
The trio consisted of Harvey on vocals and guitars, Ellis on drums and backing vocals, and Oliver on bass. Oliver later departed to rejoin the still-active Automatic Dlamini. He was subsequently replaced with
Steven Vaughan.
The band released two albums: [m=52561] (1992) and [m=52590] (1993).
The band’s final tour was to support
U2 in August 1993, after which the trio officially disbanded.
Since that PJ Harvey started recording music solo under the same name.