I'm far from arguing 'concerts against clubs' in the present old-style, stale format. I can't abide these setups that still call themselves 'clubs' yet book MOR 'stars' for whom you can only book on Ticketmaster and treat them like VIPs and don't let anyone else on except, possibly, themselves. Not have I time for the ramshackle cliquey gang of old pals who have the same old same old all the time and don't really want anyone else there anyway and send them scattering if they do venture in because of such an unfriendly, unprofessional, out-of-tune attitudes and renditions.

I'm for hastening a total rethink, for advocating the new-style venues; the arts and leisure centres and well-run night clubs where artists actually get paid the going rate with proper contracts and punters pay little more than they do for a night out from hell at the Rat & Cockroach. And where a vast variety of stuff is going on, where ceilidhs can be held and sessions held not in direct competition with the widescreen television and jukebox.

And I'm also calling for proper funding tor the traditional arts as I always have done, though not with a faux-inverted snobbish putdown of opera and ballet.