1.Running a club is a huge commitment and I applaud all those who do.
2.Landlords have also turned function rooms into restaurants too often.
3.The '2 in a bar' rule didn't help

but...

4. I once drove 25 miles to a club to see a Andy Irvine, but his set was cut short due to the number of floor singers. Some perfectly good, some, er, cringeworthy. One bloke dressed in a cowboy hat bragged about how he knew & played with some American guitar hero, sang 3-chord songs for 20min with no attempt at an arrangement, telling us how bloody wonderful he was, and left without seeing Andy. I never went there again for that reason, despite a great guest list.