“I’m a little breathless”, whispered Ganavya to a packed audience as she joined her harpist and double bass combo on stage. “It’s probably because I’m a little heart-broken. I may need your help tonight. Would you sing with me?”
Ganavya, a New York born, Tamil Nadu-raised sonic shapeshifting multi-instrumentalist and guilt tripper and star of Indian music, supporting reigning queen Aruna Sairam was probably the show of the Festival. Hard-bitten cynics in that audience have since confessed that they did sing with her. My friend and I sang with her. Everyone sang. And as we did, so her breath returned, filling her lungs with a soaring song of heartache that rocked the Theatre Royal, a transcendent mix of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music that many of us may never have heard before. Yes, it was in Tamil and in Hindi. Yes, we understood every word.
The Brighton Festival. It’s one of the highlights of the calendar, but it’s difficult. How do you know what to go to? A reworking of Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar’s “Passages” aside, there were no big “must see that” shows, and if you didn’t know your South Asian arts scene, Anoushka Shankar’s Festival was a bit of guesswork. There’s absolutely no doubt there was some marvellous stuff – as evidenced by the Sairam and Ganavya gig, but if you’re not an aficionado of Indian music, would you have known that was going to be such a hot show?
There’s something else– let’s call it May Fatigue. There’s so much going on in Brighton in May. The Festival, the Great Escape, the Fringe… the Open Houses. Yes, the Open Houses. A lovely thing to do, seeing some art, nosing round other people’s homes. And it might be free, but you’re out and being out, maybe you’ll stop for a drink. Or a bite. So yes, lots going on and all demand your attention and your time and your energy and, maybe more importantly, all demand your wallet. Nothing’s cheap. We went to the Spiegel Gardens last night and bought a bottle of wine to share. £39.50.
For a whole month, the streets are alive with the sound of, well, everything. Not just music but everything, and if the Weather Gods smile, there’s no finer place to be. Just maybe… it could all be spread out a bit more? The Great Escape in June maybe?
Anyway, back to the Festival. The best non-music thing I saw was Emma Rice’s Wise Children production of North by Northwest, also at the Theatre Royal. A triumph of parody and comic timing and, well, you can read all about it here in The Mighty Whistler. https://westhillwhistler.com/2025/05/17/north-by-northwest-at-the-theatre-royal/
Saturday night’s showstopping gig was Nadine Shah at The Dome. Again, Mercury nominated she might well be, but she’s not “Bloody hell, cancel everything, this we have to see”. As it turned out, she was great and, while we didn’t have to cancel anything, it was very cool. And this is the glory of the creative directorship of the Brighton Festival; if Anoushkar’s already shown you her record collection and opened a door into a whole new world of music and arts, how could Nadine Shah be anything other than an exciting new find?
Like a cross between Shirley Bassey, PJ Harvey and Patti Smith, South Shields-born Shah is as loud and opinionated as any girl from the Geordie Shores. But her mash up of her own singular influences from Afrobeat to Eastern scales – apparently her father sang Urdu ghazals, a form of Arabic poetry, around the house as she grew up – became a roar of pain as she took us with her on her personal journey of grief, rehab and recovery as she pranced like a dressage pony across the stage. The music was hard, her voice sharp, the roar raw.
The spiritual delicacy of Sairam and Gavanya, the joy and verve of North by Northwest, the raw noise of Nadine Shah. All in one Festival. And how cool is that?
The Whistler 