LYR are Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters, and multi-instrumentalist/producer Patrick James Pearson. Formed in 2018, LYR are now a firmly established part of the contemporary music scene, with regular radio airplay across the networks, a critically acclaimed debut album, Call In The Crash Team, and over two million streams to their name. They have appeared at many major festivals over the past three years including Green Man and Blu Dot and completed UK tours and sell-out events at venues such as the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds.

Having released their debut album through Decca label Mercury KX, as well as releasing music through the traditional channels the LYR ethos is very much about pursuing other creative ventures and bespoke projects. In 2020 they released the song Lockdown featuring actress Florence Pugh, to raise money for the charity Refuge, in support of abused women. Commissioned by Durham Brass Festival to compose work around the theme of County Durham's struggling pit villages, in July of this year LYR delivered a passionate and culturally significant performance in Durham Cathedral, backed by Easington Colliery Band. The making of the work was recorded in the documentary Firm As A Rock We Stand and released as an EP under the same title. In spring of this year LYR devised and produced a full-scale promenade musical and dramatic performance of the ancient poem Gilgamesh with students at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.  LYR specialise in collaborations with filmmakers, choirs, orchestras, and many different kinds of artists with a view to making a distinctive brand of art, but one that always has memorable songs, melodies and words as its foundation stones.

Photo credit - Katie Silvester