The Northern Working Men's Club Circuit used to be the training ground for many thousands of up and coming entertainers. What has happened to it?

In the beginning, the entertainment for each club was handled by the Concert Secretary, a man with formidable power. The Concert Secretary would tour clubs, viewing the acts. If he liked what he saw, the date books would come out, and a deal would be struck for the act to appear at his club. In order for 'out of town acts' to become known, the Concert Secretaries would host frequent 'Showcase Nights', to enable new acts to get themselves seen. The Northern club scene thrived, with lots of work for entertainers, both established and unknown. The Northern club scene was also acknowledged as the place to learn the art of entertainment, to receive feedback on your entertainment value, as the audience's reaction was instantaneous (and could be cringingly embarrassing).

There was also a good living to be made by musicians. Apart from the occasional group, each visiting act would require the services of the resident band (at least keyboards and drums). I was once playing keyboards eight times a week at a club: every evening, and Sunday lunchtime. Apart from this, the musicians were also able to learn the difficult art of 'The Dance Night'. Now this may not sound much, but believe me, it takes many years of experience to be able to look at a crowd and assess the correct tempo to play the Chicago Swing (between 160 and 180 bpm). If you guessed wrongly, nobody danced, and that was the last time you did that gig.

Unfortunately, Theatrical Agents decided that they were missing out on all this easy commission and managed to convince a large number of clubs that they could provide all the artists the club required, without the Concert Secretary ever leaving the club. The Concert Secretary died out very quickly. This new system worked quite satisfactorily, however, until a few years ago, when a few agents started to get greedy. They persuaded their acts to obtain backing tracks on tape, with the promise of extra work in pubs. Once they had established this, the agents then suggested to clubs that they could dispense with their resident musicians. The agent would supply self-contained acts, and if any backing musicians were required, they would supply them also. This was the nail in the coffin for live music.

It started with just a select few top-of-the-bill acts, who felt they needed a substantial backing band to carry them; now every Tom, Dick, and Harry has backing tapes. Some of the tapes are not even made by musicians; the act uses a Vocal Remover to take the original vocals off the track (and you can be sure that they do not pay royalties). I have seen acts who blatantly mime to an original track and claim they are singing!

I still work at clubs occasionally, but it is becoming increasingly infrequent. More and more clubs have disposed of live music, and crowds dwindled fast (and so did the clubs). Some clubs still thrive though. Run by professional management, they have live entertainment and provide the audience with variety.

What went wrong?

Apart from being a gigging musician, as Technical Manager for John Hornby Skewes & Co, Kevin Aston is responsible for ensuring that the company's products comply with the multitude of European Directives.