I was sort of involved with one that booked guests in the 80s. I didn't book the guests but I was aware of some of the fees. As far as I can remember, the sort of lower fee was £60. The highest I can remember was for a well known English fiddler who cost £180.

We did (but shouldn't have, I was annoyed but that's another story..) charge on the door for the fiddler but that's the only instance I can think of where we did charge.

Money was raised a) by passing a pot round, b) a raffle and c) with the London (we were lucky), the landlord put in a contribution (off hand, I would suggest it might have been £10 when trade was good in the summer).

The club had a guest about 1 in 4 in the summer, tailing off to nothing (except perhaps Barry Skinner for the Xmas do) in the winter from which the period after the New Year could feel a bit of a long haul.

The financial "problem" I remember was never on of not being able to pay guests but an excess of money. This could be resolved by either having an extra guest or by getting a bigger name.

The subject of door charges did crop up once in a while and opinion was divided but not that I can remember for reasons of wanting to always have big names. I'd say it mostly really came down to whether one believed people should be charged for entertainment as a matter of principle or not.

My own views fwiw were we would not be better of financially by door charging, the voluntary contributions worked well for that club, a charge would loose good will (perhaps including the landlord's) plus I personally liked to provide folk at no charge. Also, and again very personally, I would not like to have charged for the array of floor singers we had and certainly would not have liked trying to offer "value for money" with implications as discussed in other recent threads here...

So, yes, oldfogie, I've at least seen a bit of it.

(and I'll add I'm not saying other clubs are wrong in what ever policy they choose - I just know where my own feelings lie).