Latest news with #Brine
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Salty Brine review – daring diva mashup with hella pizzazz
On his last London visit, Salty Brine mashed up the Smiths' album The Queen Is Dead, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and episodes from his own life into a pretty extraordinary show. But not a unique one – Brine has made 21 such confections as part of his Living Record Collection project, which now brings These Are the Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show) to Soho. If I found this one less remarkable an achievement, the feeling was offset by admiration that Brine's Smiths show was clearly no fluke; that he's created a striking and confident collage-cabaret genre all of his own. Maybe that last one worked so well because Frankenstein described the form as well as the content. The fit is less neat here, as our drag-queen host splices Annie Lennox's album Diva, a recording of Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall, Kate Chopin's feminist novel The Awakening and (I'm almost done …) tales from his own mother's failed marriage. In this telling, both the novel's heroine and Brine's mum are women struggling to free themselves from marriage and societal convention. Tripping in and out of song, family anecdote and scenes from Chopin's southern gothic, with additional characters played by scene-stealing pianist Ben Langhorst, Brine's gumbo doesn't stint on rich ingredients. The results can feel overcooked, the individual flavours hard to distinguish. In a show that trucks exclusively in big emotion, Brine's mother's experience (and his own, navigating his parents' divorce and coming out) is rendered every bit as melodramatic as Edna Pontellier's. The songs of Lennox and Garland sometimes illuminate those stories, and sometimes don't. But they're always delivered with limpid loveliness by our host, or with hella pizzazz should the moment require. That roof-raising voice of his, not to mention the sexual frankness, as Brine drapes himself over this audience member or that, may not be the perfect match for Chopin's tale of clipped and frustrated womanhood. But why quibble, when it's easier to be swept along by the bravura of the enterprise, a lush hymn to dreams of freedom and a feat of idiosyncratic connection-making to put Adam Curtis in the shade. Salty Brine: These Are The Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show) is at Soho theatre, London, until 26 April
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Taxi fares increased for hackney cab passengers
Taxi fares in South Gloucestershire have increased by 2.55% after no-one responded to a public consultation on the fees. The higher fares have been introduced for hackney carriages, which passengers can hail in the street or catch at a rank. Private hire vehicles, such as those ordered via the Uber and Bolt apps, are not impacted by the fare changes. The fare increase was approved by South Gloucestershire Council and began on Tuesday. The council's public consultation was advertised in local newspapers, on its website and in messages to taxi drivers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Council licensing service manager Lily Brine said similar consultations in recent years also prompted few responses. When asked if she was surprised no-one responded, she said: "Honestly, no I wasn't. "Based on our previous consultations on fees, charges and tariffs, we don't usually get a particularly high response to the consultations." £2.40 - the initial cost of hiring a hackney carriage. This covers the first 115m (377ft) of a journey 20p - the charge for either every additional 111m (364ft) or 26.7 seconds of waiting £1.70 - an additional rate added between 18:00 and 06:00 on weekdays and from 18:00 on Fridays until 06:00 on Mondays More news stories for Bristol Watch the latest Points West Listen to the latest news for Bristol The rise in fares comes after the number of traditional taxis in South Gloucestershire fell. The council said this was partly due to the rise of ride-hailing apps and private hire vehicles, which face less regulation than hackney carriages. "When I first joined licensing, we had probably had 350 hackneys. It's now down to about 50," Ms Brine added. "With private hire vehicles, because of the way that society and technology has changed, it's gone very much towards private hire and those pre-booked journeys rather than hackney carriages picking up at the side of the road." Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Private cabbies 'losing business' to bus service 'Impossible' to make ends meet, Uber drivers say Local Democracy Reporting Service South Gloucestershire Council
BBC News
03-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
South Gloucestershire taxi fares increased after consultation
Taxi fares in South Gloucestershire have increased by 2.55% after no-one responded to a public consultation on the higher fares have been introduced for hackney carriages, which passengers can hail in the street or catch at a rank. Private hire vehicles, such as those ordered via the Uber and Bolt apps, are not impacted by the fare fare increase was approved by South Gloucestershire Council and began on Tuesday. The council's public consultation was advertised in local newspapers, on its website and in messages to taxi drivers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting licensing service manager Lily Brine said similar consultations in recent years also prompted few asked if she was surprised no-one responded, she said: "Honestly, no I wasn't."Based on our previous consultations on fees, charges and tariffs, we don't usually get a particularly high response to the consultations." New fares £2.40 - the initial cost of hiring a hackney carriage. This covers the first 115m (377ft) of a journey20p - the charge for either every additional 111m (364ft) or 26.7 seconds of waiting£1.70 - an additional rate added between 18:00 and 06:00 on weekdays and from 18:00 on Fridays until 06:00 on Mondays The rise in fares comes after the number of traditional taxis in South Gloucestershire council said this was partly due to the rise of ride-hailing apps and private hire vehicles, which face less regulation than hackney carriages. "When I first joined licensing, we had probably had 350 hackneys. It's now down to about 50," Ms Brine added."With private hire vehicles, because of the way that society and technology has changed, it's gone very much towards private hire and those pre-booked journeys rather than hackney carriages picking up at the side of the road."
