UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has received numerous prizes and awards, including an Ivor Novello Award for his song writing and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
He has explored where poetry and song lyric converge through different enterprises – most recently as lyricist and performer with the ‘ambient post-rock’ band Land Yacht Regatta (LYR) but also as writer for various film and theatre productions including Songbirds and the BAFTA-winning Feltham Sings. Armitage’s new book Never Good with Horses is the first-ever collection of the Poet Laureate’s lyric output. He has also published over a dozen poetry collections, including Magnetic Field: the Marsden Poems. A regular broadcaster, Armitage presents the popular BBC Radio 4’s series The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed. For over ten years, Armitage has been a regular guest on The Mark Radcliffe Show, first on BBC Radio 1, then BBC Radio 2 and more recently on the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 6 Music. He also contributes to Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour (BBC Radio 6 Music). www.simonarmitage.co.uk
At Simons third appearance at Krankenhaus, he will be reading from his new book “Never Good With Horses” the first-ever collection of the Poet Laureate’s lyric output.
In his work, there has always been a territory he identifies as ‘a twilight zone’ where poetry and song lyric converge. He has explored it through numerous enterprises – most recently with the ‘ambient post-rock’ band Land Yacht Regatta. Many of the lyrics collected here were written for LYR. Others are drawn from Armitage’s days with the DIY indie band The Scaremongers, various film and theatre productions including Songbirds and the BAFTA-winning Feltham Sings, and other miscellaneous ventures. The volume’s ‘Intro’ charts these projects and the blurred origins of ritualised language, while its ‘Outro’ offers contextualising notes and anecdotal insights.
Never Good with Horses further demonstrates the rich range of Armitage’s repertoire and celebrates his ear for the music of language.