LYR

23 Jan 2025 - 23 Dec 2024

Philharmonic Hall

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LYR is author and current British poet laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters, and multi-instrumentalist/producer Patrick Pearson.

LYR’s story stretches back to 2009 when Walters, an admirer of Armitage’s extensive body of written work, approached the poet’s publisher about the possibility of collaboration. The result was Walters setting Armitage’s poetry to music in 2011. Realising that their two-part formula had potential to grow, Walters approached musical acquaintance, Pearson, and his joining provided the impetus to create the genre-splicing ‘supergroup’. 

The three-piece went on to create two critically acclaimed albums, Call In The Crash Team andThe Ultraviolet Age. Coming together with focused, blended labour to instrumentalise Armitage’s words and vocal delivery, opposing the tag of ‘spoken word project’ or similar, the band ruminates instead on what aural breakthroughs could only be possible with a non-singing vocalist, gifted singer-songwriter and alchemistic musician-producer.

LYR are now a firmly established part of the contemporary music scene, with regular radio airplay across the networks and over five million streams to their name. They have appeared at many major festivals including Green Man and Blu Dot, and sold out events across the UK.