It was a trip down the rabbit hole for PJ Harvey this weekend when she performed at the Netherlandish festival famed for its sense of adventure, surrealism and psychedelics. But it wasn’t all bright lights and coloured smoke, taking to the stage mid-concert, the iconic British singer delivered a moving speech in reaction to Friday’s Brexit revelations. “Today has been a very strange day for a lot of us here” she said, before a short rendition of John Donne’s 1624 poem No Man Is an Island. She also did the same during her set at Glastonbury on the Other Stage. Of course, she wasn’t the only musician to reference the shocking results, with Bastille frontman Dan Smith changing the lyrics from And the walls kept tumbling down / In the city that we love” to “and the pound kept tumbling down/ On the weekend that we love” during his performance of Pompeii.
Credits
Text Tish Weinstock
Photography Christie Goodwin