The pop singer P J Harvey visited St Catherine's Chapel, which has a wonderful acoustic quality and sang there. Her album Is This Desire? (EMI 1998) has a track The Wind, inspired by her thoughts about the lonely, forgotten Saint - which end in a prayer for a husband for St Catherine, a touching reversal of the usual invocation.

The sound extract below is the copyright of Universal-Island Records Limited and is reproduced by their courtesy.

The words are:

Catherine liked high places,
High up on the hills
A place for making noises
A place for making noises
Noises like the whales
Here she built a chapel
Her image on the wall
A place where she could rest
A place where she could wash
and listen to the wind blow

She dreamt of childrens' voices
And torture on the wheel
Patron saint of nothing
A woman of the hills
She once was a lady
Of pleasure and high-born
A lady of the city
But now she sits and moans
And listens to the wind blow
I see her in her chapel
High up on the hill
She must be so lonely
Oh Mother, can't we give
A husband to our Catherine
A handsome one, a dear
A rich one for the lady
Someone to listen with

Biography

"Her music shapes landscapes, radiates mood, expresses feeling - not in the way you might tell someone how you were feeling, but the feeling itself..." Colin Brown

P J Harvey - songwriter, singer, musician, actress, visual artist - is acknowledged as one of Britain's most respected and consistently ground breaking creative forces. Her starkly original recordings and compelling live shows have brought critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 1991 she has released five albums, collecting three nominations each in the Mercury, Brit and Grammy awards. Her two most recent albums, 'To Bring You My Love' and 'Is This Desire?' have each won album of the year accolades internationally. Side projects include collaborating with John Parish to provide music for the Mark Bruce Dance Company's "Dance Hall at Louse Point" and contributions to records by Nick Cave, Tricky and Pascale Comelade. She has written soundtrack music for films including "Basquiat" and "Stella Does Tricks". Meanwhile, Polly made her acting debut as Mary Magdalene in Hal Hartley's 1998 movie, 'The Book of Life'. Harvey is also an accomplished visual artist and has exhibited her sculpture, photography and drawings in various UK galleries.