Romesh Ranganathan, Brighton Dome review - transgressive, edgy and very likeable

★★★★ ROMESH RANGANATHAN, BRIGHTON DOME Transgressive, edgy and very likeable

The TV favourite hits the ground running at the start of his Cynic's Mixtape tour

One question springs immediately to mind on hearing that Romesh Ranganathan’s new stand-up show, The Cynic’s Mixtape, is touring: how does he find the time? Ranganathan has overtaken Jack Whitehall as Britain’s most media ubiquitous comic, with a deluge of TV shows and appearances, a column in the Guardian newspaper and even a recent autobiography. However, his TV CV is hit’n’miss, which leads to a second question: can he still cut it in the live arena?

Peter Perrett, Concorde 2, Brighton review - it’s a family affair for the former Only One

★★★★★ PETER PERRETT, CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON It's a family affair for the former Only One

Only Ones’ mainman reaffirms his legendary status

It’s been a couple of years since Peter Perrett, the former frontman and creative force behind the much loved but commercially under-performing Only Ones decided that he’d had enough of being a mere legend and got back into the musical ring. He had made a brief reappearance in the mid-1990s under the guise of The One, but that was all very fleeting, and Perrett’s infamous bad habits soon reasserted themselves until a short Only Ones’ reformation tour 10 years ago.

Superhoe, Brighton Festival 2019 review - a darkly vital one-woman show

★★★★ SUPERHOE, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL 2019 A darkly vital one-woman show

Nicôle Lecky's raw, persuasive play about sex work, social media and female empowerment

Tonight comes with a caveat, delivered before proceedings begin by the one-woman show’s writer and performer Nicôle Lecky, who’s sitting in a chair centre-stage. She damaged her foot during Sunday’s matinee at the Brighton Festival, dancing about, and has since had to do the whole thing seated.

Primal Scream, The Haunt, Brighton review - up-close, short, raucous and sweaty

★★★★ PRIMAL SCREAM, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Frenetic small-scale gig is short and sweaty

Frenetic small-scale gig by the large-scale rock'n'roll band

Primal Scream have played in this city, in the recent past, at the 4,500 capacity Brighton Centre but tonight they’re in a venue which holds well under 400. A bananas atmosphere reigns when bands of their stature play intimate shows, and so it is tonight.

Rokia Traoré: Dream Mandé: Bamanan Djourou, Brighton Festival 2019 review – traditions soar free

Rokia Traoré takes Mali's music on a slow dance to transcendence

Much of Rokia Traoré’s set on Saturday night comprised folk songs about Mali’s warrior kings, connecting with her country’s fabulously wealthy, proudly powerful past. They suit this diplomat’s daughter’s regal stature, which she has put at the service of a nation still enviably rich in musical resources, but battered by civil war, poverty and terrorist attack.

Chamber Music, Brighton Festival 2019 review - Wu-Tang Clan depths divined

The social and musical roots of the Wu-Tang Clan's debut discussed

Martial arts mayhem, Shaolin philosophy, a tribe of masked hip hop warriors emerging from the mist of Staten Island, a Funkadelic-Parliament collective sprawling through the music industry in the age of black mass incarceration: the Wu-Tang Clan were all these things, immediately.

Ruby Wax, Brighton Festival 2019 review - how to be human

★★★ RUBY WAX, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL 2019 How to remain real in an inhuman world

An evening of laughs alongside real lessons in mindfulness and neurology

Once the self proclaimed poster girl for mental illness, Ruby Wax has evolved her stand up act, because, as she puts it, “everyone has mental illness now. It spread like wildfire.”

It’s a tongue in cheek reference to the current supposed "fashion" for speaking up and out about mental health with the aim to de-stigmatise and taboo-bust – something that Wax has contributed hugely to over the years, by bravely opening up about her own journey to let other people know that it was OK to not be OK.

Tucked review - dispiriting British drag queen drama

Danny la Rue's ghost returns to haunt Brighton's piers

It would be great to herald this low-budget drama about an elderly drag queen and his friendship with a young gay singer-songwriter as a little gem of British indie cinema. But Tucked, which aims to be an odd-couple tale of heart-warming redemption, is pretty dispiriting with its slow pace and predictable plot.