PJ Harvey - Early Life

Early Life

Harvey was born in Bridport, Dorset, on 9 October 1969 as the second child to Ray and Eva Harvey, a stonemason and sculptor respectively, and grew up on the family's farm in Corscombe. During her childhood, she attended school in nearby Beaminster and her parents introduced her to music that would later influence her work, including blues music, Captain Beefheart and Bob Dylan.

As a teenager, Harvey began learning saxophone and joined an eight-piece instrumental group Boulogne, based in Somerset. She was also a guitarist with folk trio The Polekats, with whom she wrote some of her earliest material, and played as a rhythm guitarist in The Three Stoned Weaklings, a three-piece band formed by Paddy Ashdown, Gus Mackinlay and Graeme White. After finishing school, Harvey attended Yeovil College and studied a visual arts foundation course.