Hootenanny,
No apologies needed, there were so many moves with the club at that time that I have difficulties in remembering all of them. That particular one would have been mid to late seventies I think. It was at the height of the period when the breweries were expanding their properties to make use of the function rooms; in the Louise's case it became a bistro for office workers. Ironically, I was working as an electrician for a firm contracted to Watneys, (of non-alcoholic beer fame, (though not intentionally). I saw from the inside the devastation of some of the most beautiful period pubs in London.
We left the Cora Hotel when we heard that the management had let its function room for a weekend knees-up of European fascists - the booking was made by LePen's daughter.
Two early venues not mentioned, both in the early sixties, were The Pindar of Wakefield in Grays Inn Road and a (non alcoholic) Boys Club in Lamb's Conduit Lane (adjacent to Conway Hall).
There was also The John Snow in Soho Square; Pat remembers queuing up to see Ravi Shankar there (I think we still have the pre-publicity leaflet here somewhere).
The John Snow was also the scene of 'The Great Debate' in the mid-sixties, when a panel consisting of Bert Lloyd, Alex Campbell and Bob Davenport discussed the revival; MacColl chaired the meeting.
Campbell bemoaned the fact that young singers were getting the same fees as him and told everybody how much he 'loved the auld folk', Davenport spoke about 'art' with a small or large 'A', said Jeannie Robertson was a rotten singer and shouted everybody else down, Bert was nice to everybody, and the proceedings ended in fisticuffs - halcyon days.
Jim Carroll