The 274 didn't exist when I first used to go to C#H but there was a perfectly good rail station into Euston (Primrose Hill) a few minutes away. This closed when the area went upmarket and none of us could afford to live nearby any longer. Back then, Eliza C's dad (among many others) used to get in through the downstairs bog window because few of us had the door fee. By the time I started working there (1969) Martin could doubtless afford to pay to get in, but didn't need to. These were "the Goode old days", which weren't.

After being fired (almost) along with anyone else with an interest in and passion for the music as it was then and not 70 years earlier, I've scarcely ever been back but when I have I'm enveloped in cold shrouds of fear (and anger) at the controlling hierachy. The decor and layout have altered little (except that more and more of the building is sublet and the shop is no more). On Saturday (as on lots of occasions over the past 40 years) I couldn't bring myself to go. Shades of Ursula Vaughan Williams and her supercilious cronies linger on. I may have missed a great musical occasion, but I'd seen Eliza (and Saul Rose) the night before and decided not to spoil that.

Is the EFDSS really changing enough today into what it ought to be at the vanguard of "our" music? Come on Ruth, try to convince me.