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Rachel Pegg reveals why popular city nightspot the Joogleberry Playhouse is being relaunched as the Latest MusicBar

As the Joogleberry is reborn as Latest Musicbar, Brighton’s live music scene is assured of a dynamic future.

It is one of the quirkiest venues in Brighton and for many music fans it reflects everything they love about the city. The Joogleberry Playhouse is intimate, stylish and welcoming, with a vibe that suits all kinds of acts from the funky ten-piece salsa band to the a capella performer.

The bar/music-venue/nightclub has the atmosphere of a New York jazz club while remaining distinctly Brightonian – trendy, full of character and a stone’s throw from the beach.

Over the years it has counted among its audience Paul McCartney, Fatboy Slim, Zöe Ball, Alistair McGowan and thousands of other Brighton and Hove residents.

This week the much-loved Joogleberry is to become Latest MusicBar – its first name change in five years, since the Students’ Union moved out of the original Komedia building.

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A new intiative to encourage attendance at secondary school celebrates success

Attendance at secondary schools in Brighton and Hove is on the up thanks to Just 24, a new initiative from the council, with the help of local businesses. The Just 24 project held an awards ceremony at Hove Town Hall recently to reward young people for attending school for 24 days during the first half of the summer term.

Prizes included high street vouchers, concert tickets, DS Lites, PSPs, digital cameras and free ‘shakes’ for a year.

The number of young people attending every day during the 24 day period was 3945, more than a thousand more than last year.

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Phil Mills welcomes a lifeline for elderly nurses on the brink of losing their homes

Pam Hanney

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for retired nurses who only nine months ago feared their cottages might have to be sold and they would have to find new homes.

A charity read of their plight and has now offered to take on the running of John Howard Cottages in Roedean Road, Brighton, thereby allowing the 20 ex-nurses to stay put and live out their lives in peace.

Senior executives from Careways Trust, a charity which runs homes for the elderly, met with residents and said rents will have to rise to pay for urgent repairs but he stressed their only purpose was to maintain the status quo and run the homes as they are.

Many of the nurses will make formal replies to the proposal within the next week but some have already given a cautious welcome. Pam Hanney, 79 and a nurse for 35 years, said: “This seems the best and frankly the only option left open. Rejecting it will throw us back into uncertainty.“

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Phil Mills finds out if the city’s party leaders are doing their bit to help the environment and the economy

Higher food, gas and petrol prices are focusing minds on household expenditures and economies, but how far are people really cutting back?

Brighton and Hove’s three party leaders were asked: are you switching off lights and avoiding car trips?

Gill Mitchell, Labour leader, has had tiffs with her 26-year-old daughter at their home in Kemp Town: “I’ll find her putting just a pair of jeans in the washing machine.

“I’ll pull her up on the waste and cost of energy used for just one pair of jeans but then she pulls me up on other things she sees me doing.

“I will switch off the TV standby light but I can’t bring myself to do the same with my computer – I’m worried I’ll lose everything.

“Overall, my daughter and I have a pretty sustainable lifestyle – I work at the Royal Sussex County Hospital twice a week and can walk there and back, and my daughter walks to American Express where she works.

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