I haven't had time to read and digest all of this thread, which seems to have appeared over the weekend.

But it seems that some clubs only charge £2.50 on guest nights, which seems to me remarkably good value for the punters, at being around the price of a pint of ale. Hats off to the organisers if they are able to do it at that price and still pay the performers what they want.

The clubs I go to usually charge considerably more than that (typically £8 or £10, but sometimes even more for really big name acts).

But I can see the problem, if people are used to paying so little, to get them in every week at higher prices. I admit I've recently missed a couple of nights at one club I belong to, through a combination of cash-flow problems (OK, I was skint!), and the acts not being of great interest to me; whereas I normally go every week, unless it's an unavoidable absence. So I can appreciate the balancing act between getting regular attendees at a lower price and a less frequent attendance at a higher price.

I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how to run their clubs, but to charge such a low fee in this day and age seems going a bit too far. Are these people really so impoverished that a fiver a week (roughly two pints of beer) would be too much for a whole evening's entertainment?