The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

He's one for ya..... we had this thread running on the old Garden so we lost all out exploits when we lost the "old" Garden so thought we could try again;



Just out if interest it would be good to see & get an appreciation of who manages to get to see Polly around the world.
If you've been lucky enough to see her perform live, please add yourself to the list.

mine looks a decent list but i know some of you guy's beat me hands down

I'll start the ball rolling,
I think I was in denial in the early years, no one would come with me so once i'd plucked up the courage I went as "billy no mates" to my first 2. Then a few years back I got together with a new partner who previously hadn't heard of PJ, but now she's taken to Polly nearly as much as me

I actually bought two tickets for both of my first two gigs in the hope i could cajole someone to come along, alas not! I've still got the spare ticket from my 1st show complete with stub, i gave away my spare ticket for the 2nd show outside the venue to someone looking to buy - just to piss the touts off

Funny really cuz the girl who knocked me back in 2001, 4 years on we got together camped @ Hay & she thought Polly was brilliant, we managed to get centre front row seats, ditto Copenhagen where we also first met up Olivier101 thanks to the Garden, a really nice bloke & the rest is history


mainly in England but here goes....


Mart- UK
2001/09/28 - Manchester, Apollo
2004/09/11 - Birmingham Carling Academy
2006/05/26 - Hay-On-Wye, Literary Festival, UK
2006/09/24 - Denmark, Copenhagen, Royal Opera House (met up with Olivier10....so can't be bad )
2007/07/07 - Manchester Bridgewater Hall (met up again with Olivier101 & ze monsta from the old Garden)
2007/09/24 - Bristol, Colston Hall - "for fuck sake"
2007/09/29 - London, RFH - brilliant (met up again with Olivier101)
2008/06/30 - Athens, Badminton Theatre
2009/03/12 - Bridport, Arts Centre - Polly town - soooo cosey my new favorite
2009/04/22 - Brum, Town Hall
2009/04/24 - Machester, Ritz
2009/07/24 - Lulworth, Camp Bestival
2011/02/27 - London, Troxy
2011/07/13 - Luxembourg, Neumunster Abbey (in Olivier101's manor)
2011/09/08 - Manchester, Apollo
2015/10/10 - London , RFH - The Hollow of the Hand
2016/06/27 - Eden Sessions Cornwall
2016/11/04 - Wolverhampton, Starworks Warehouse - my home town
2017/08/20 - Green Man Festival

so over to you

ps, can you give us an idea of your location if it isn't part of your profile :?

09/05/93 Yeovil Gardens Nightclub
02/03/95 Yeovil Gardens Nightclub
24/06/95 Glastonbury Festival
11/10/96 Bristol Fleece and Firkin
13/12/98 London Shepherds Bush Empire
13/02/01 London Shepherds Bush Empire
31/09/01 London Brixton Academy
15/08/03 Eden Project Cornwall
25/06/04 Glastonbury Festival
13/07/04 London Somerset House
12/09/04 Bristol Academy
26/05/06 Hay on Wye Festival
07/07/07 Manchester Bridgwater Hall
24/09/07 Bristol Colston Hall
12/03/09 Briport Arts centre
18/04/09 Bristol Anson Rooms
25/07/09 Camp Bestival, Lulworth
27/06/16 Eden Project, Cornwall

It's not a trip around the world, but I went (besides Holland) to England, Belgium and next year to France to see PJ Harvey:

1998 December 7th – Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht (NL)
2001 February 11th - Shepherds Bush Empire, London (UK)
2001 February 28th - Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
2004 June 10th - Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam (NL)
2004 June 11th - Music In My Head Festival, Den Haag (NL)
2004 July 4th - Werchter Festival, Werchter (Be)
2009 May 13th - Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL) (with John Parish)

upcoming:
2011 February 24th - l’Olympia, Paris (Fr)
2011 May 3121 - Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)

Good idea !

Mine is pretty much a subset of Mart's, who I met at Copenhagen and again at the next 2 gigs

• 2006-05-26: Hay-On-Wye Festival (Wales NOT England): this one is special not only because it was the first, but also a discovery of the then new album White Chalk, new stage decor with the illuminated piano, a very chatty and funny Polly with several incidents (giant insect, reluctant synth...) that only added to the enjoyment!
• 2006-09-24: Copenhagen (Denmark), Royal Opera House, ceremony for some prize that I forgot... awesome venue, awesome city, and got to meet awesome people
• 2007-07-07: Manchester, Bridgewater Hall: besides the show I remember a great night with sparse memories of insanely spicy kebab, beer, a great little club, more beer, and other possibly alcoholic drinks...
• 2007-09-29: London, Royal Festival Hall

upcoming:
2011-02-24: Paris, L'Olympia: I'm so looking forward to it! I missed my Polly

2004-09-09, - CORN EXCHANGE - CAMBRIDGE, U.K. <- Like a true eastern european I was working that summer in the UK factory at nights. Got TWO days-off out of two months pure labour. One of those was this gig. Funny thing, I was sitting in the balcony with all the elder PJ fans, and they knew all the older songs from Dry, ROM etc, I knew only those from ITD and latter. I was still a newbie fan back then

2008-05-21, - KONGRESOWA HALL - WARSAW, POLAND <- Awesome show in an awesome place. Nina Simone for first hour of the waiting. And joyful Polly afterwards. My then boyfriend didn't get her, though. We finished the night arguing who is a better artist, comparing PJ Harvey and the Scorpions. Yeah, silly thing to even try to do, I know..

2011-05-31 - Amsterdam. YAY! First time with no seats, I HOPE!

agejus wrote:2011-05-31 - Amsterdam. YAY! First time with no seats, I HOPE!

The floor at Paradiso has no seats, the balconies (2 floors) have seats.

this are mine:

2001-03-10, - PALALIDO - MILANO, ITALY
2004-06-19, - AUTODROMO (HEINEKEN JAMMIN' FESTIVAL) - IMOLA, ITALY
2008-03-09, - AUDITORIUM SANTA CECILIA, PARCO DELLA MUSICA - ROMA, ITALY
2009-05-04 - AUDITORIUM DI MILANO (PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH) - MILANO, ITALY

hope to see her soon next year live on stage

Mine:

2004-06-20, - CENTRALE DEL TENNIS - ROMA, ITALY
2008-03-09, - AUDITORIUM SANTA CECILIA, PARCO DELLA MUSICA - ROMA, ITALY
2009-05-04 - AUDITORIUM DI MILANO (PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH) - MILANO, ITALY

Upcoming:
2011-02-27 - TROXY - LONDON
2011-05-26 - AULA MAGNA - LISBON
and hopefully some Italian gigs!

ps Black Hearted Love, yes, I copied your list! (sei italiano/a!)

Stop showing off, mart and dickie! :-)

Fan since 'Dry' but didn't see Polly live until 2004.
Makes me cringe every time I think about that. Damn...

September 2004 - Brighton Dome (At the front. Amazing to be that close to Polly after all those years being a fan. To see her in the flesh for the first time. Lovely venue which used to be stables for Prince Regent's horses; in the grounds of the wonderful Royal Pavilion.)

29th September 2007 - London, Festival Hall (Brilliant. Walking across Westminster Bridge and the Thames at night, in anticipation of seeing Polly, was wonderful.)

25th July 2009 - Camp Bestival, Lulworth (Brilliant, of course; Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door...Polly country!)

April 2009 - Brighton Corn Exchange (sorry, a bit of cheating here: with John Parish. Polly gave me a gorgeous, and I have to say a very sexy smile, during 'Taut'; I like to think she was smiling at me anyway - about 10 feet away, bare feet, black nightie. Oh yes. I stood right by the speaker and had a headache that lasted two days...lovely.)

Upcoming - London, Troxy Monday date
Hopefully a Brighton gig too, please.

sau wrote:Stop showing off, mart and dickie! :-)

nah, i just like 2 find out a little more about our Gardener "mates" there are some on .net that put us 2 shame but as i say it took me a while to get going!

Skinned wrote:ps Black Hearted Love, yes, I copied your list! (sei italiano/a!)

yep, we probaly already knew each other, nel forum italiano sono Evol...tu?

A whopping 2 shows for me thus far (please come stateside Polly, to cities I can get to)

2009-03-26, The Fillmore at Irving Plaza, NYC
2009-06-03, Madison Theater, Covington, KY

I was a rather sad latecomer to the blissful life of following Polly, largely due to the unfortunate fact that I seemed to have begun listening to her albums not merely in the wrong order but at the wrong moments (when strangely enough I didn’t take to them instantly, but I probably was in the wrong mood), until I finally got hooked on Polly’s music very suddenly, late one night in May 2005.

that was in the period of hiatus between Uh Huh Her and White Chalk, when it was rumored that Polly had retired from the music business and would not perform live anymore. so it made me desperately sad to think that I had missed all the good times and that I would never get the chance to see her live (except in video recordings).

but only a year later the news broke... and after I failed to go to Hay-on-Wye, I felt an excruciating remorse (but was effectively relieved of this affliction when seeing Polly at the opera house in Copenhagen, three hours’ train-ride from my place of residence). I then resolved to do whatever I could to avoid suffering that sort of chagrin again, and have since been going to so many shows that I reckon I'm spoiled rotten (though it feels anything but rotten, going to shows).

here’s my personal Polly-gig attendance history:

2006-09-24: Copenhagen, Opera House (front row seated)
2007-07-07: Manchester, Bridgewater Hall (front row seated)
2007-09-24: Bristol, Colston Hall (5th row seated)
2007-09-29: London, Royal Festival Hall (3rd row seated)
2007-12-19: Dublin, Olympia Theatre (2nd row seated)
2008-03-09: Rome, Auditorium, Parco della Musica (4th row seated)
2008-05-19: Berlin, Friedrichstadtpalast (front row seated)
2008-05-21: Warsaw, Sala Kongresowa (8th row seated)
2008-06-19: Oslo, Opera House (2nd row seated)
2009-04-15: Brighton, Corn Exchange (front row standing)
2009-04-18: Bristol, Ansom Rooms, University of Bristol (front row standing)
2009-04-20: London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire (front row standing)
2009-04-21: London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire (front row standing)
2009-05-07: Berlin, Astra (front row standing)
2009-05-11: Copenhagen, Vega (front row standing)
2009-05-13: Amsterdam, Paradiso (balcony front row seated)
2009-05-14: Brussels, Ancienne Belgique (2nd row standing)
2009-05-17: Paris, Le Bataclan (front row standing)
2009-05-18: Paris, Le Bataclan (front row standing)
2009-07-24: Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms (front row standing)
2009-07-25: Lulworth, Camp Bestival (5th row standing)
2011-02-21: Berlin, Admiralspalast (front row standing)
2011-02-22: Berlin, Admiralspalast (balcony front row seated)
2011-02-24: Paris, Olympia (front row standing)
2011-02-25: Paris, Olympia (2nd row standing)
2011-10-27: Prague, Lucerna Hall (front row standing)
2015-10-09: London, Royal Festival Hall (8th row seated)
2015-10-10: London, Royal Festival Hall (4th row seated)
2016-06-20: Berlin, Zitadelle Spandau (c.10th row standing)
2016-06-29: Gdynia, Open'er Festival (c.20th row standing)
2016-10-12: Warsaw, Torwar Hall (2nd row standing)

2008-03-09: Rome - Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Parco Della Musica
I was sitting miles away from the stage but fortunately I had binoculars!
I really enjoyed seeing her for the first time alone on stage, just her and all her instruments.

I skipped this date last year (A Woman A man tour)
2009-05-04: Milan - Auditorium Di Milano
although I was in Milan, to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the same night. Ticket for PJ was too expensive, and I wasn't really interested in seeing her during that tour, in a theatre as I already did in Rome: I needed sweat and mosh
hope to see her again in Italy, no matter where

Update:
2016-10-24: Florence - Obihall
I went with my sister, whom I turned to PJ thanks to years of heavy rotation. Pretty close to the stage, fantastic gig and setlist, she closed the night with my sister's favourite (ITD), so that was a sweet surprise. Before the show I stood for a good minute next to John Parish and Alessandro Stefana chatting with a friend at the bar but didn't feel like intruding, I was just happy to see him live in front of my eyes.

Pollyphoniac wrote:I was a rather sad latecomer to the blissful life of following Polly...........

jeez Clem you have been busy these last 3 years

top man