The gold CD plaque that the British Phonographic Industry awarded Steve Albini for his work on PJ Harvey‘s breakthrough album, Rid of Me (1993), is going to auction. The trophy, which recognizes sales of more than 60,000 albums in the U.K., is expected to go for at least minimum bid of $2,200 on the website Steve Albini’s Closet, which launched following the death of the venerated musician and engineer.
“Generally in great shape, although the upper left corner of the glass has been cracked for years,” the listing discloses. “We could replace it here if you like, but it would be an easy job for any frame shop, or you could choose to leave it as is.” (The listing does not explain who, how, where, or when the frame got damaged in the last 32 years.) The auction ends on Thursday.
Harvey sought out Albini to record the second album by PJ Harvey (then the name of a trio) after falling in love with the sound of records he recorded for the Jesus Lizard and the Breeders. “Those albums sound so alive and exciting and just really raw,” she once told Vox. “They don’t sound like they’ve been through a studio process at all. It’s like you’ve stood in front of the band playing live, all the atmosphere is there and that’s kind of the sound I wanted to get.”
The album became PJ Harvey’s international breakthrough on the strength (and sound) of singles like “50ft Queenie” and “Man-Size,” which both got notable MTV play. Although the album didn’t earn a sales award in the U.S., it reached Number 158 on the Billboard 200. Kurt Cobain, who’d work with Albini on Nirvana’s In Utero the same year of Rid of Me’s release, was a vocal fan of the record.
Following Albini’s 2024 death, Harvey paid tribute to Albini with a statement saying he’d “changed the course of [her] life.” She also dedicated her song, “The Desperate Kingdom of Love” (which is not on Rid of Me), to Albini at the Primavera festival that year.
“He really strengthened me into believing in myself,” Harvey told Rolling Stone in 2024. “He definitely helped my self-confidence in his own belief in my music and in myself as an artist. … When I got to know him, I just was hugely respectful of him, and he was very wise and very straight-talking, and I feel like I learned such a lot about life and music from him. I think the biggest thing that he did for me was my confidence in myself and in my music. He boosted me to believe in myself.”
