L.Y.R – The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool – 18th April 2026

Sitting proudly in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter in Liverpool, The Yoko Ono Lennon Centre hosts The Tung Auditorium – a vast room with high-steeped chairs designed for exceptional acoustic performance. Testing the acoustic claims of the room tonight were poet laureate Simon Armitage and his band L.Y.R who are fresh off the release of their beautiful new album Dark Sky Reservation. 

Natalie Wildgoose

The evening opened with Natalie Wildgoose taking centre stage with a calm, but assured performance of her intimate material. Over a handful of songs, Natalie drowned the room in her soaring yet fragile voice with folk tales set against a backdrop of Cumbrian waterfalls, churches and hills. Her music is delivered with a free-spirited nature and songs like Come Into The Garden and Sibyl sounded just as they were intended to in such a purpose-built space. In the spaces of the songs there sat a reverent hush from a very appreciative Liverpudlian crowd, who were left wanting more from Natalie.

Throughout the performance, she discussed the novelty in the recording process around caves, waterfalls and churches in Northern England – with an additional nod to the inadvertent inclusion of an RAF flyover on one recording. For an evening that grew in its hushed appreciation for several art forms, this was an ideal opening. 

ROY

Cloaked in a vibrant multi-coloured shirt, and donning a pair of purple wallabies, local poet Roy took centre stage next with a single spotlight illuminating him amid a darkened venue. ROY is the stage name of P.J Smith who speaks with an endearing, thick Scouse accent refined on the streets of Toxteth. His performance was a storytelling supernova based on Philip Larkin’s work and the impact of single-parent raising of a child in a working-class home – all through the interaction with an Alexa from beyond the grave.

To try and summarise here would do his work no justice and would certainly be unable to succinctly summarise both the joy and delight of the performance. The local crowd certainly appreciated the gallows humour and perfectly delivered expletives and, as mentioned earlier, was a fine choice for a night of music and spoken-word. 

L.Y.R (Land Yacht Regatta)

With the stage and setting drowned in a vibrant colour scheme of orange and yellow, LYR emerged from stage right to an appreciative crowd who anticipated a fusion of music genres and the spoken word. The Tung Auditorium is a vast space, yet the arrival of the band and the anticipated hush in the venue closed the walls in to make it feel much more intimate than the space intended. With the dipped house lights and brightly-lit stage, not fussed with unnecessary stage design, the crowd were able to focus solely on the performance.

Patrick J Pearson, the producer and writer from Devon, counted in his bandmates with the beautiful opening keys of A Walled Garden as singer, Richard Walters filled the room with his stunning vocal delivery of the first line: “Try not tread on my little white flower…” before Simon Armitage over a more pulsating beat read, in his typical Yorkshire style, a descriptive setting of life, weather and nature coming to life.

Of all of L.Y.R’s experimental backcatalogue, this was the perfect opening track. Following up with Blah! Blah! Blah! – a key moment on their latest album – the band pivot into something with a more definitive industrial beat as Armitage reads with more distinct purpose and irony. Again, Walters’ vocal performance cuts through the beat and spoken word with both ease and a satisfying beauty; by the end of only the second song it was evident how well these three distinct artists were able to blend their individual, distinctive styles into one sonic offering. 

A TIN ANNIVERSARY

Simon Armitage, fronting the band, greets the crowd warmly by explaining that this was the band’s 10-year (tin) anniversary, summing up their work with pinpoint humour as being ‘dictionary karaoke’. There can be no doubt as to the accuracy of his description with wordplay being a core strength of having a poet laureate fronting a band. Walters swaps out the electric guitar for the acoustic performance of the stunning album opener Dark Sky Reservation.

For anyone in the crowd who was unsure of either what to expect or how it might be delivered by now they will have felt the love of music and language this group have, as well as the astute observations of Simon Armitage to blend a curious but alluring sonic experience. The ever-impressive Patrick J Pearson, like a side stage conductor, was layering his glorious beats over sumptuous keys work as the band moved carefully through their set. The next track, Guernica Jigsaw, was one I was particularly looking forward to and the live performance adding a nod to Who Will Buy This Wonderful Morning? from Lionel Bart’s Oliver.

L.Y.R have produced a sumptuous album, but it is here on this stage that the thread of their work is revealed: Patrick Pearson’s ability to lay a shimmering and exciting foundation with his keys work and beats is perfectly juxtaposed by Simon Armitage’s intricate and observant wordplay, yet when performed live it is Richard Walters’ vocal delivery – in a room designed specifically for this purpose – that gives an angle to their delivery on stage that transcends the recorded version. 

A Transcendent Combination

The transcendent combination of Patrick Pearson, Simon Armitage and Richard Walters continues through The Goldilocks Zone and, taken from some of their previous work, Pigeons of Eldon Street – a wonderful snapshot of a bird’s life in Barnsley. In the midst of this set we are also offered a window into the wonderfully quirky world of Simon Armitage as he recalls shopping for boneless chicken thighs in Aldi whilst Katy Perry fills the store radio airwaves. The audience continues to respond warmly to Armitage’s dry wit and the other band members seemingly too enjoy this Mortimer-style window in to the ordinary world we all share.

Yet this view of the mundane: libraries of Manchester, pigeons of Barnsley and boneless Adli chicken is what ultimately brings the group and the crowd together – an appreciation that art truly exists in all forms. LYR pull off a shacket combo like no other Flat White sipping trio could – they performance is assured and relaxed, yet in there strain of the silence there exists a very mutual love. Again this is punctuated best when broken by Walters’ ethereal vocals.

The rows of astute listeners are in seated rapt silence waiting for the conclusion of this intricate songs to share their appreciation for the work. LYR stepped carefully through tracks from their newest album plus back catalogue offerings in the form of The Enlightenment and Never Good With Horses. A highlight of the evening was the stunning Sirius Alpha, Sirius Beta with the sumptuous opening lyric that draws lovers together to touching distance; once again the combination of spoken word, house beat and exquisite vocal sets a stunning climax to the set, before the band close out with Great Coat. 

The Arts of Storytelling

Returning humbly for an expectant encore, Simon Armitage introduces the band formally describing Pearson’s work as “twiddling with the toy box” and Walters’ voice as “space dust in a vacuum“. The mutual consideration and love for their art forms is what appeals most about L.Y.R and, if given the chance, they will electrify festival fields all summer. Closing with Under Artificial Light, which navigates some of the writing process, and Where Have You Been All My Life ensures the band finish on a complete and fully-earned climax. Leaving the stage with the request to meet the crowd up at the merch desk was a typically humble acknowledgement of how touring as a small band is as much about the art as it is the outcome. 

After the most respectful post-gig lineup I have experienced, it was back into the cooling Liverpudlian spring air. The streets around the Yoko Ono Lennon centre seemed to respond to the hush of the venue almost is reverent admiration of what had taken place within the walls. L.Y.R, alongside Natalie Wildgoose and ROY provided the 300 or so crowd with an evening of stunning music, passionate storytelling and soaring vocals – it is one to hold on and keep for months and years to come, yet everyone seemed so at ease with it. 

L.Y.R have several dates left across the UK in April and May including Nottingham, Glasgow, York, Hebden Bridge, Leeds, London, Exeter, Bristol, Brighton and Falmouth. Catching them live is highly recommended.

LYR: Website

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