Famous music club facing closure Society of Musicians seeks survival plan to meet #50,000 debt

emergency meeting has been called for next month when a resolution that

it should be wound up will be put to members.

Many of the country's leading music-makers have enjoyed the special

atmosphere of the club in Berkeley Street, near Charing Cross.

Personalities such as Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, and Fritz

Kreisler have been guests there. Sir John Barbirolli was a member.

Its main lounge, known as the Concert Room, has a perfect acoustic,

one of the reasons it has become a home from home for some of the

world's top jazz musicians in recent years. It is an official venue of

the Glasgow Jazz Festival.

Despite efforts by its council, which has been fighting against the

forces afflicting most social clubs, it has been finding it increasingly

difficult to make ends meet. The economic climate and the breathalyser

have taken their toll.

The emergency general meeting which will take place in the club

premises on February 1 will have before it a special resolution that the

company be wound up voluntarily in terms of the Insolvency Act of 1986.

The resolution also calls for Leon Marshall CA to be appointed

liquidator.

Despite the gloom, a note of optimism was still being sounded

yesterday. Members and friends of the society were saying it was

essential that as many as possible turned out for the EGM. And that they

should come armed with positive ideas to save the club.

One of the survival options would be to merge with another club, but

there are few which might be compatible in the city. The main hope would

be in finding sufficient financial backing to mount a holding operation.

The society, formed in 1884 as a gentlemen's club, has maintained its

old world atmosphere while at the same time keeping up with modern

trends.

Mrs Ann Kelly, secretary of the society, said last night: ''Although

things look pretty desperate, all avenues will be explored. We would be

happy to re-vamp the constitution to make the society more available to

the public, and to make it more open for public use for certain kinds of

events. We did that a few years ago, but it could still be taken

further. At the end of the day something should survive.''

Mrs Kelly, whose husband, Lex, is vice lay president, said that the

only agency that had been helpful in the difficult times was Strathclyde

Regional Council, which had been very generous in rates relief. ''But we

have had no help from the Arts Council or the district council,'' she

added.

''The Glasgow Development Agency was willing to help with funding

towards marketing and business plans, but in the end we did not have

enough money to have the premises revalued.

''We are part of Glasgow's history and heritage. No one makes any

money out of it. The office bearers have probably been thousands of

pounds out of pocket with the help they have given in so many different

ways.''

The total debts, including bank overdraft which was secured against

the premises, amounted to #50,000. She said #10,000 would get them out

of the immediate hole.

''What hurts us most is that in global terms it is such a paltry

amount. And the thought that maybe when the economy picks up in two or

three years we're going sit back and say we lost the society for want of

#50,000.''