At the 2011 NME Awards, PJ Harvey received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and it was about time, too. After 7 studio albums, Polly Jean is well and truly back on the scene with her 8th album Let England Shake. Yet again, like with all her albums, it's a different style, but her old collaborator John Parish is back again and was in her band for a short tour to promote the album. The two shows athe Troxy theatre in East London sold out very fast. I went and saw her the second night and met a group of fans from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who had followed the tour and said it was worth the long journey, as there is nobody else like her and they're right. She came onstage wearing what looked like a wedding dress from another century made from a sheet and a fascinator made of large black feathers fixed onto her head. She opened with the title track from the new album, Let England Shake and current single release The Words that Maketh Murder and performed the album in it's entirety. She barely spoke to the audience, apart from to introduce her band members and say a few thank yous to the applause.

Atter leaving the stage, she returned to sing several old favourites. I was very excited to hear Down By the Water from 1995 album To Bring You My Love and Last Exit from 2001 album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea.

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