Durham Brass Festival hosts BBC Radio 4 The Verb
Simon Armitage & LYR performing “Firm As A Rock We Stand”
with Easington Colliery Brass Band
Plus poetry presented by Ian McMillan
Durham Brass Festival proudly presents a powerful restaging of Firm As A Rock We Stand, first presented at the festival at Durham Cathedral in 2022. Co-commissioned with the Durham Miners’ Association, this moving performance features LYR alongside the Easington Colliery Brass Band, brought to life through music and brass arrangements by award-winning composer Simon Dobson.
Firm As A Rock We Stand, reflects the tragic history of Durham’s ‘Category D’ villages. In 1951, local authorities declared 121 villages in County Durham economically unviable, cutting off their public funding. This sparked decades of hardship, with entire communities erased, and villages unjustly labeled as slums. Upon learning this history, Simon Armitage and LYR found immediate inspiration for the work.
LYR – featuring UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Pearson, and singer-songwriter Richard Walters – has been a prominent force in contemporary music since 2009. Combining spoken word, soaring vocals, and harmonics, LYR has cultivated a devoted following with sell-out national tours and major commissions from the National Trust, Festival of Libraries, Barnsley Council and most recently, the 2025 BBC Proms.
This special performance will be held at Redhills Miners’ Hall, also known as The Pitmans’ Parliament, and recorded for BBC Radio 4’s The Verb. The event will include poetry performances presented by Ian McMillan.