Swaying with the Verses

Hi! And welcome to the first newsletter of me trying to let you know what’s going on in the Sway of the Verses universe!

February marks three years of radio, I started on and am still a resident on Voices Radio, had a residency on Balamii and am currently a resident on NTS; I’ve also done guest shows on RinseFM, Brixton Radio, BMC, Foundation, Netil Radiom, RunDemRadio and G-Shock Radio. On most radio stations, there isn’t a space to hear Raga Music, so I though I’d offer a guiding hand to those interested in this musical tradition, playing music and by bringing in guests to talk about this very deep tradition. More importantly, I learnt how to model with the South London scowl. 😃 

I also feel there isn’t a single place to find out about raga based music gigs, so I’ve finally started to build a website for myself and I will list all the gigs I can find, or are submitted to me, everything is very much a work in progress… so it’s not going to look very slick to start off with, I thought I better just get stuff out first!

Listings— February 2023

Here’s a load of gigs happening around the UK this month, you should definitely try and go to a few to support the musicians and organisations promoting them, there has been a definite decrease in the amount of gigs every month since Covid and we need to really start attending with force so they are not lost!

Tue 11 Feb 2025 / 18:30
India’s Music of Today: Niladri Kumar
Niladri Kumar – sitar
Satyajit Talwalkar – tabla
Barbican, London, UK
Book Now: £20-75

Sat 15 Feb 2025 / 18:00
Bluefeather Studios presents Thamizhum Naanum
Sanjay Subrahmanyan – karnatic vocal
The Bhavan, London, UK
Book Now: £45-40

Sun 16 Feb 2005 / 15:00
Baluji Shrivastav & Yousuf Ali Khan
Baluji Shrivastav – sitar
Yousuf Ali Khan – tabla
Middlesbrough Town Hall, Middlesbrough, UK
Book Now: £5

Thu 20 Feb 2025 / 18:30
Hindustani Classical Vocal Recital
Sukhada Kane – hindustani vocal
Nehru Centre, London, UK
Book Now: £Free

Sat 22 Feb 2025 / 13:00
Beyond Roots
Rekesh Chauan – piano
Kousic Sen – tabla
Capstone Theatre, Liverpool, UK
Book Now: £11

Wed 26 Feb 2025 / 13:05
Winter’s End (Melodies of Love)
Kirpal Singh Panesar – tar shenai
Leeds Conservatoire, Leeds, UK
Book Now: £Free

Fri 28 Feb 2025 / 13:00
Lunchtime
Roopa Panesar – sitar
Sukhdeep Dhanjal – tabla
St Martin in the Fields, London, UK
Book Now: £10

*note… I don’t make any money or anything from these listings, I don’t even get guestlist, I’m just doing it, because people need to know where to see live music.

Radio Shows

Shows from last month and this month from my residencies on NTS and Voices Radio. I’ve got a residency on G-Shock Radio every other month on a Sunday, for the rest of the year; I’ll be curating 5 hours of radio, inviting musicians, djs and other creatives to share their most indulgent tracks that they relax to, over a two hour slot!

I also took part in the Awaaz takeover on Voices Radio, where a number of south asian residents took over the airways with some amazing shows, diving into music and interviews over 12 hours!

NTS

Voices Radio

G-Shock Radio

I was very lucky to have two amazingly creative friends join me for the first G-Shock session of 2025, Isaac B (rapper, poet, sound engineer, yoga teacher) and Rosanna Dean (artist, lecturer and radio presenter)!

Awaaz Takeover

A wonderful 12 hours of radio content for you to devour, with some brilliant talent!

• Brother Sanjiv

• Rav

• Sway of the Verses with David Jesudasan

• Amris

• Amrish with Sandunes

• Ramnik

• Almass Badat with Sarith Ratnayake

• Eshie with Rishi

• Hard1p with Daskaran

Next on:

The World is Sound: Tuesday 18 February 2025 / 11:00
Nāda Sonics: Saturday 1 March 2025 / 08:00

I’ll have an archive of all my shows up on the website soon!

Chila Burman: Chila Welcomes You

I took a trip to the Imperial War Museum in Salford, to play at the opening night at Chila Burman’s new exhibition - Chila Welcomes You. I should’ve got my review done already, but getting a newsletter ready and trying to build a website alongside client work has been pretty hard! It’ll be up fairly soon on FAD Magazine. It’s a wonderful exhibition, go and see it, and hear it… with a lovely soundtrack by Niraj Chag!

But I had a wonderful time looking at the exhibition and then playing a very nice mix of contemporary south asian sounds on a very nice sound system.

Music Recommendations

I guess I should recommend some music too, being a music person.

Gigs

I’ll be doing an ambient vibes session at the amazing Sauna Social Club in Peckham on the 22 Feb 2025 / 7-11pm, follow them on instagram to find what’s going on and book a sauna session on their website and chill in their space afterwards

I think that’s enough for January!

Let me know if you go to any of the gigs in the listings, I’ll be updating listings as I find new gigs or gigs are submitted to me, so check my website swayoftheverses.com, and if there’s anything else you’d like me to feature send me suggestions and I’ll see you next month.

Swayoftheverses!

And check my insta for the latest happenings with me (I should start a broadcast channel, to spam people with reels)

And if you want book me or collab with me, or send me a box of pickled onion monster munch crisps, please get in touch.