Today I'm going to stick to the rules of this new feature - just one song.
Another excuse to play a track from the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, and his mates in LYR. Simon's greatest achievement in poetry is the way he effortlessly weaves the Northern vernacular into his work - like I keep telling the kids, it's poetry that doesn't sound like it was written by the Oxbridge elite, yet it's just as (if not even more) affecting.
Here Simon imagines himself (remembers?) being a young man stranded in a Barnsley nightclub, hoping he might meet a girl. But he was never any good at "hook a duck".
I've no idea why a lad from Marsden would spend his nights out in Barnsley... unless he was too embarrassed to go on the pull in Huddersfield.
You'd think that being Poet Laureate would keep Simon Armitage busy enough, but evidently not - I'm finding it hard keeping up with his musical career with Patrick James Pearson and Richard Walters as the band LYR. When I heard they had a new album out in April, I headed over to their bandcamp page... only to discover I'd completely missed an earlier offering, An Unnatural History, which must have followed hot on the heels of the last record I bought from them, 2023's Ultraviolet Age.
I'm slowly embracing the charms of An Unnatural History, but I've been particularly taken by a three-part song structure (or whatever you want to call it) that's dotted throughout the collection. It's called Theodolite... and it involves Armitage wandering round a run-down town centre (which I'm convinced, because he's a local lad, and because I recognise some of the places he mentions) must be Huddersfield. Although there's an Eldon Street in Sheffield, and one in Barnsley too, so it could be anywhere round here.
Of course, there's more to it than that, because he's a poet, and so what sounds like is actually a commentary on modern urban life... but beyond that, I'll leave you to make up your own minds.
And yes, I had to google what a "Theodolite" was. And it made perfect sense when I did.
Local lad and restraining order waiting to happen (such is my obsession) Simon Armitage became the Poet Laureate late last year. In between writing poems for the Queen and the Sunday papers, he somehow found time to record a new record. Not with his former band, The Scaremongers, but with a new collective called LYR. (Apparently it stands for Land Yacht Regatta, so nothing to do with lyrics at all. That'll teach me to try to second-guess the Poet Laureate.)
An addictive set of story poems set to musical backing, full of northern humour and incisive lyrical detail, they've been a firm favourite at Top Ten Towers these past few months.
Is it just me who sees a band photo like the one above and now immediately thinks "you're not stood far enough apart?" What has the world come to?
You may recognise the gentleman on the right as our current Poet Laureate, and native to these parts. Simon Armitage. Oh god, you're probably screaming, Rol's going to bang on about how Simon Armitage comes from the same village as his dad again, and how he now lives less than a couple of miles down the road from him again, and how he's spent the last 20-odd years secretly stalking him without ever actually meeting him. Again.
Some friends of Louise's were out walking on the canal the other day, and who did they bump into? Lovely man. Had a nice chat, they did.
Grr.
(If that doesn't get your goat as much as mine, consider this: Another friend of Louise's, who lives in Brighton, regularly bumps into Nick Cave. They're on a smile and a howyadoing acquaintance now.)
And don't even start me on Guy Garvey on 6Music. Every week, it's "here's my best mate Simon Armitage..."
My life in a nutshell. Standing outside the party and wondering why I didn't get the invitation.
Anyway, I have written many times before about my admiration of Mr. Armitage, both as a poet and a part-time pop star. I saw his last band, The Scaremongers, live at Hebden Bridge Trades Club, you know, many years ago. So I suppose I have at least been in the same room as him once. Before the restraining order.
His latest musical offering is LYR, alongside musician Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Pearson. I'm guessing the name is something to do with lyrics. Armitage's mournful northern tones are given haunting and evocative backing that's quite some distance from the indie shambles of the Scaremongers... but lovely nevertheless.
But you're most likely to have heard the lead single from their album Call In The Crash Team, Never Good With Horses, which received a smattering of airplay.
This, though... this is my favourite thing from them so far. A live isolation recording of that single, shorn of fancy production, but still achingly beautiful...
I was overjoyed to see local hero Simon Armitage finally crowned Poet Laureate last week. Simon comes from Marsden, the same village as my dad, and I've been a fan of his poetry, his prose... and his music... for many years now.
Here he is as lead singer in his own indie band, the Scaremongers,from the 2009 album Born In A Barn.
