ONE of England’s most enduring contemporary singer-songwriters and live performer is performing in Morecambe for the first time.

Robyn Hitchcock, famed for his surrealist take on lyricism and playful musicianship, will play at More Music in support of his latest album.

A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician’s musician, Hitchcock is among alternative rock’s father figures and is the closest thing the genre has to a Bob Dylan, not coincidentally his biggest musical inspiration.

Since founding the alt-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than twenty albums and has starred in ‘Storefront Hitchcock’, an in concert film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme, who himself found fame directing ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and Talking Heads’ lauded live film ‘Stop Making Sense’..

Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’.

Hitchcock fist started to make his musical mark when his band Dennis and the Experts, became the neo-psychedelia band The Soft Boys, based in Cambridge.

The group recorded an EP and two LPs before splitting up, and Hitchcock, who had sang lead vocals and played guitar, started his much-loved solo career.

Throughout his solo career, many of his backing band has been made up of members of The Soft Boys, and the original band have reformed on occasion.

Its most famous incarnation was as The Egyptians, who would perform on six different records throughout the 80 and the early 90s.

Since then, Hitchcock has been consistently releasing albums and touring all over the world, including live sessions on radio.

His album ‘The Man Upstairs’ is a bittersweet love letter to a vanishing world.

It was produced by legendary folk-rock svengali Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake).

His most recent album is self-titled and marks his 21st release as a solo artist.

The album, largely rooted in psychedelic rock, represents a stylistic change from his previous LP, The Man Upstairs, which was entirely acoustic.

Released in April 2017, Hitchcock describes it as an ‘ecstatic work of negativity with nary a dreary groove.’

It has been well-received by music critics.

To mark the touring of the album, Hitchcock played tracks form the album on Marc Riley’s BBC Radio 6 Music show.

Robyn Hitchcock will play at More Music on Saturday May 26.

Tickets online and at box office.