PJ Harvey Gig Review - Manchester Apollo 8th September 2011

PJ Harvey - Live Review

Manchester Apollo Thursday 08/09/2011

Only a matter of days after winning the Mercury Music Prize for the second time, Dorset’s Polly Jean Harvey took to the stage at the famous Manchester Apollo. Announced only a couple of weeks before the event was the surprise that there would be no supporting artists at this show, which is always a disappointment, as it's exactly this kind of slot that can propel aspiring and lesser known talents to the attention they deserve. All the same, this lack of support created an interesting atmosphere within the auditorium, where you could sense the anticipation that the audience were expecting something unique, something more than a run through of greatest hits, or an old favourite's latest offering.

As you would presume, the band were greeted on stage by a very warm reception, and as PJ and her band settled into their positions a single spotlight illuminated PJ in her gothic attire, while at the other side of the stage a yellow mist formed around the band, which set up for a dark and mystical evening. Her feathered headdress stood up from her head like a pair of horns, and with the low lighting gave her a mythical presence on stage. As the crowd settled, the opening manoeuvres of the title track from the award-winning album itself 'Let England Shake' began with the melancholic strumming sound of the autoharp, setting the tone for the night ahead. The instrument itself, despite its similarities in sound to a guitar, gives a completely different dimension to the performance. Seemingly being cradled gently within her arms, almost as you would expect a mother to hold their baby, the image portrayed was far removed from the often aggressive stance that can be taken from a guitar player, and gave the show a tender feel. This brought a reflective tone to the performance, very fitting with the lyrical content of 'Let England Shake' with its 'horrors of war' themes. And it was her vocal performance of these songs that transcended far beyond what has been captured on the studio recording of the album, moving it in to the realms of the exquisite. The show was beautifully constructed with the set list flowing through a catalogue of new and old, interchanging between tracks from the current album and older songs such as 'C'mon Billy', gracefully reworked to match her current sound.

Every song performed was note-perfect in terms of instrumentation and vocals, with her vocal range hitting breathtaking highs throughout, filling the room and focussing all eyes on her, and this despite the powerful musicianship of her band that included her ‘musical soul mate’ John Parish. You could tell that the music they were playing meant just as much to them as it did to PJ herself. The harmony of the lower male voice was a beautiful caveat to Polly's angelic voice, creating a natural and emotive tone, filling the low end of the tonal spectrum with a deep rumble that complemented the overall sound excellently.

As only a very new listener of PJ Harvey, and this the first show of hers that I've attended, I truly didn't know what to expect. I certainly had enjoyed 'Let England Shake' before this gig, but it in fact wasn't one of my favourite albums. However the live performance blew me away; the raw emotion of her voice being the main contribution to what was one of my favourite performances for a long time. The energy that was forged on stage was much more powerful than I could have imagined. It captivated me throughout as a relative 'newbie' to her music, and made me feel inspired and appreciative of such a fine performer.

Back to blog

I used to use this blog to document the work I did for my degree in Creative Music and Sound Technology. As you can see it's been a while! But I've decided to give it a new lease of life. Watch this space...

Update of Work Feb 09

Currently working on a few projects. Currently composing an alternate score for animation entitled 'Delivery', currently things are sounding very dark and score is entirely symphony based in its current form and is likely to continue in this form. A short clip of this piece is now avalible in my portfolio on the website www.arronprescott.com under delivery music.

Entry 5: More fun with Foley

On Friday we had booked time in the gym to record some hits on a punch bag.Me, Chris, Greg, Ryan and Paul were present, the first problem we encountered when entering the gym was the sheer amount of reverberation the room produced. We knew here that the recordings may not be exactly what we were looking for, but saw no harm in persevering. We used the mini disc portable recorder to record the bag. Hitting the bag at different velocities with our fists one hit at a time, then with a bat, and then a bat wrapped in a jumper to get a variety of sounds in our hits. We did this for approximately 30 minutes. After we had finished in the gym we moved up to Production Booth 4 to record dialouge for our clip. We hired out a Neumann U87 and a pop shield. Ryan was playing the part of Agent Smith, and Paul Neo. We recorded the dialouge with a copy of the script and the film clip on the screen in the live room so the performer could sync up the lines to the mouth movements on the clip. Whilst Ryan, Paul and Greg were busy recording the dialouge me and Chris took the opportunity to go to the vacant Foley room to record other Foley sounds we still needed for the film. We used the HHB MDP500 mini disc recorder to quickly record some of the smaller sounds needed for the clip, these included bricks and rubble falling, footsteps on wood,shoe movement, footsteps on rubble and knuckle cracking.

Entry 4

On Tuesday of this week, Myself, Greg, Ryan and Paul met up to record more Foley. We were to record the sound of rain. Throughout the majority of the clip there is torrential downpour, so recreating this, without ruining a lot of equipment was the challenge. We hired out a HHB MDP-500 mini disc recorder, and took it off site to Paul's house. We then recorded the shower running into the bath at a variety of intensities. The the results we got were good, and with some EQ and layering should sound a lot like rain. We also tried filling the bath up a few inches, and running the shower into that which gave some variation to the sound. We also Recorded the sound of splashing in the sink as there is a lot of footsteps and falling about in water in our chosen clip.

Today, Myself Chris, Greg, Ryan and Paul, were present for a two hour slot in production booth 1. We were planning to record thunder. We had encountered an issue with sound, and were finding it hard to recreate. Initially we had planned on sampling the 'Thunder box' Ryan had discovered in a music shop in town, however on second listen it wasn't quite what we were looking for as it didn't produce a crack of thunder and more of a low rumble. So we were back to square one. We hired out a Rode NT2A mic and a pop shield. Then decided to try general objects we had amongst us to see if they produced and suitable sound, or at least something we could pitch down to sound more like thunder. We recorded crisp packets being crunched, but when pitched down the sound was 'wet' and not like thunder. Before scrapping the audio put it through a low pass filter, which sounded a lot like thunder, with the addition of reverb and other EQ the audio we recorded will be our thunder.

Entry 3

On Friday (22nd) Me, Greg, Chris, James And Ryan were -present for the recording of some sound effects. We purchased bamboo rods, celery sticks and carrots in an attempt to create authentic sound of wood snapping, as well as debris falling. For this session we were in studio 4, we hired out two Rode NT2A condenser microphones and positioned them, initially, approximately two feet apart facing each other, very close to the ground. We dropped the bamboo very carefully in between the microphones (onto coats to not damage the floor) to capture the sound of falling wood/debris. We then raised the microphones and attached pop shields, keeping them at the same distance apart to snap the bamboo, which made a good wood breaking sound. finally for this sessions recording we brought the microphones in closer to snap carrots and celery, which was a great success as it sounded a lot like wood snapping and splintering on playback.

Entry 2

After intense planning, recording of Foley will begin this week. Me Greg and Ryan today devised a schedule for. This week we will be concentrating on smaller sounds such as 'swooshes', knuckle cracks and breaking wood. We have obtained some bamboo to help achieve swooshes and wood breaking. We have also discovered a Thunderbox which should help produce a realistic Thunder sound, without having to use a sample. I feel things are going well so far, we are up to date with all our paperwork, and handled our presentation well.