Armitage is the first poet laureate who is also a disc jockey.[4][121] He is a music fan, especially of The Smiths.[4] During what his wife Sue described as "a bit of a mid-life crisis", Armitage and his college friend Craig Smith founded the band The Scaremongers.[4] Their only album, Born in a Barn, was released in 2010.[122] Armitage is the lead singer of LYR (Land Yacht Regatta), a band he is in alongside Richard Walters and Patrick J Pearson. The band is signed to Mercury KX, part of Decca Records. They released their debut album Call in the Crash Team in 2020 and a single called Winter Solstice in 2021 featuring Wendy Smith from Prefab Sprout.[123][124][125][126][127][128][129]
In May 2020 Armitage was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His choice of music included David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream"; his chosen book was the Oxford English Dictionary, and his luxury was a tennis ball.[130]
