Jim,
Can you explain in what way the Singers Club was not commercial as opposed the the Ballads and Blues Club? I visited the Singers Club on three occasions and had to pay to enter.

Your comment about noise from a bar at the Cellar upstairs (which as far as I know usually operates in a function room and not in the bar) reminds me of one occasion when I visited the Singer's Club. A certain gentleman who was a regular supporter there was somewhat "tired and emotional" and in the middle of a song by Derrol Adams very loudly commented "he's still singing the same _ _ _ ing songs". The same man that I had had to eject from the B&B a number of years earlier for similar disruption. I won't mention his name as I know that you don't like folks dancing on graves.
I don't recall a bar in the basement at St John Street so I guess he oiled up before entering the club as he used to at the Nellie Dean Street.