After the publicity in the media across Sussex, including The Argus, the first night of Guilty Pleasures at the Hanbury Ballroom in Kemp Town was widely anticipated.

The night - when the sort of tunes you know you shouldn't like but do are played - had already been successful in London and was in Brighton for the first time.

But as well as "ordinary" clubbers queuing up outside, there were also lots of people who had schmoozed on to the guest list and who walked straight in without having to wait in the sub-zero conditions.

As members of the unconnected public shivered on the pavement for the best part of an hour, the spangly-dressed in-crowd shimmered inside. In fact, the club was soon completely filled by guest-listers.

Meanwhile, those of us who had turned up early to ensure we could get in were effectively turned away (although it was impossible to move because of the rigor mortis-like effect of the double-figure wind-chill factor).

True, the club had said it was largely booked up and warned only a few people would be accepted. But those of us in the queue were also told we would get in.

Then to hear the dread words: "Sorry mate, it's one in, one out," took the proverbial.

If it was going to be a private party, why let us queue up?

Despite the club's supposed musical democracy and people-orientated happenings, nights like this show as much contempt for ordinary, paying clubbers as any of the large, corporate clubs.

-Tom de Kadt, Hove