PJ Harvey Steps into the Light

ON THE FACE OF IT, precious little has changed in the world of PJ Harvey in the 14 years since we first met. On that occasion, just ahead of the release of her second album, Rid of Me, the landlord in her local Dorset pub took me aside to explain that this shy, intense 23-year-old, whom he had known all her life, but whose music he had clearly never heard, was "the sweetest girl who ever walked the earth".