Ah, I see Tom has beaten me to it.

"Punters" are paying customers, that is to say those who come along to a venue (possibly for the first time) for a specific purpose (i.e. to see the booked performer), as opposed to the organiser and his / her mates who may or may not have handed over the door fee but, nevertheless, consider it their god-given right to do a floor spot usually without any preparation.

Punters are the very people that an organiser ought to be seeking to impress, provide them with their money's worth and encourage to come again. At a well-run club, that organiser MC is out there talking to faces, especially new ones, seeking feedback and gathering ideas on what else should be done to boost the venue's popularity.

As for the 60s / 70s, yes there was many a venue with headline acts booked each week, with the overflowing diaries of top performers showing over 300 gigs a year. Oddly enough, that same organiser I had in mind in the previous paragraph is the same one who was running a legendary club circa 1972. There's a tiny handful of them left, scattered around the countryside.