A man drought is stemming a composer's creative flow.

When Orlando Gough put the call out for singers to take part in his promenade performance Happy Together for the Brighton Festival, he received a flood of interest from women.

But the response from men has been more of a trickle.

The performance, which explores the age-old ritual of stag and hen parties, will see a male chorus and a female chorus meander separately around the city centre until they eventually meet in "a rather strange denouement" at the Tru nightclub in West Street.

More than 100 women have volunteered to join the hen party, but so far there are only 40 stags.

Mr Gough, director of choral ensemble The Shout, has approached every choir in the city but the results have been disappointing.

He believes men are simply too shy to sing.

He said: "The difficulty we've had is absolutely typical. There are always far fewer men who sing than women.

"A lot of boys stop singing when their voices break. It's such a terrifying moment when you open your mouth and a strange noise comes out."

Mr Gough, who lists The Weathergirls' "It's Raining Men" among his favourite songs, is appealing for men who can sing even just a little to come forward.

Audience members will follow the performers around the city, choosing to follow either the stags or the hens.

He describes the event as "half-way between a choral performance and a protest".

He said: "Whatever happens it will be fun. It's quite anarchic.

"We'll be out on the streets making a racket and it will be interesting to see how Brighton reacts. It's quite unpredictable."

Participants will be singing conventional and unconventional versions of pop songs, as well as some songs composed by Mr Gough. They do not need to be able to read music.

There will be three nightly performances of Happy Together from 7.30pm on Thursday 15, Friday 16 and Saturday May 17.

Tickets are £18 for the 80-minute performance.

If you're interested in taking part email james@theshout.org Tickets for this year's Brighton Festival are already on sale to Festival Friends, who enjoy priority booking as part of their membership.

On the launch night on Wednesday tickets worth a total of £20,000 were sold, the highest value of sales ever, and an increase on last year of about £2,000.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday February 29.

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