PJ Harvey Returns…

 

Who else is excited as I am at the prospect of a spanking new PJ Harvey record?

 

Yes, the daddy-long legged rock ‘n’ roll siren is back…and I for one cannot wait for her return next year.

 

‘A Woman A Man Walked By’ will be released on March 30, in collaboration with John Parish…And having had the divine priviledge to hear the album a few months ago, I can confidently announce that Polly’s latest material is a breathtaking return to form, harking back to her early ‘Dry’ days.

 

For me, PJ Harvey represents everything a female artist should be but rarely ever achieves. Having written a fair few ‘women in rock’ features in my time, I guess my thoughts on Polly our best summed up through some words I wrote a few years ago:

 

“Where Polly Harvey succeeds is in her celebration of female sexuality in a man’s world. When the long-legged Harvey stood on stage in Reading Festival in 2001, skimmed by her tight mini-skirt and suggestive black boots, rocketing out raw thrills on her guitar, an iconic picture was created. The guitar need not be a phallic representation of the male ego: it could be used and manipulated by women to create a different sound. This wasn’t a bid to be accepted or different, it was a display of equal expression. When ‘Is This Love’ kicks in on ‘Stories From The City…’ exploding through the speakers with thrashing, grinding guitars, the deep raw expression of unashamed desire punches a mark. It’s opinionated. It’s unapologetic. And it takes no prisoners.”

 

In a current pop-climate stodgily saturated with the likes of Madonna and Katy Perry, her graceful presence has been sorely missed. Roll on 2009.

 

In the meantime, lets enjoy one of my favourite Polly tracks ‘Horses In My Dreams’, with those dreamtalking, dreamwalking lyrics:

 

Rode a horse around the world
Along the tracks of a train
Broke the record, found the gold
Set myself free again

I have pulled myself clear

 

 

For girls about to rock (in Saudi): We salute you

What with Katy Perry admitting she kissed a girl and liked it; Ida Maria declaring she likes you so much better when you’re naked; and Madonna currently indulging in her own brand of post-divorce pelvic-thrust therapy, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the womens lib movement in music has finally rendered its female artists free to express themselves in whichever ways they’d like.

 

Yes, the arguments and debates still rumble over – and well they might…the music industry itself is nowhere near it’s deserved equilibrium  - as my opening paragraph demonstrates: Does a female artist has to go to extremes in order to garner front page attention? As Alison Goldfrapp articulately pinpointed when I interviewed her a year ago for Clash Magazine, addressing the cult-rise of Beth Ditto: “does a woman have to be an extreme in order to get on the front page of NME?”

 

For those women restricted by the religious fundamentalism of their male aggressors in the Middle East, the question is far more vital: “Will any woman ever enjoy the freedom of making music like her male counterparts?”

 

It’s a question being asked in Saudi Arabia by a group of four revolutonary young girls who are daring the impossible – they’re daring to rock.

 

The reality for these girls in Jeddha, Saudia Arabia is a far cry from the MTV shenenegans of newly-crowned pop princess Katy Perry: They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album covers. Their jam sessions are conducted in secret, in fear of offending the religious authorities.

 

But for Saudi-Arabia’s first ever girl rock group Accolade, it’s a jam session worth fighting for.

 

The band’s first single ‘Pinnochio’ has become an underground hit in their home country, busy downloading the track from the girls MySpace.

 

The contradictions aren’t lost on the band. 19-year-old Lead singer Lamia may have a pierced eyebrow, but under Saudi law, she isn’t even allowed to drive a car.

 

“In Saudi, yes, it’s a challenge,” she admits. “We’re crazy. But we wanted to do something different.”

“What we’re doing — it’s not something wrong, it’s art, and we’re doing it in a good way. We respect our traditions.”

As in Iran, the under 25s make up a whopping 60% of the nation’s population. In Saudi at least, that majority is beginning to speak up. In 2008, there is a burgeoning rock scene, and a thriving hip hop fan base…and now they have their first all-female rock band.

 

Support the cause by clicking onto their MySpace. It may not be entirely your cup-of-tea, but quite frankly, if that’s your main concern then you’re totally missing the point here. Whether you love or hate these girls’ music is irrelevant. The fact is they’re making music.

 

There’s a tiny butterfly flapping its wings in Jeddha…lets make it a f***ing earthquake:

 

www.myspace.com/accoladeofficial