With summer once again upon us - that heady mix of torrential rain, punctuated by the occasional blast of sunny delight - the stalwart holidaymaker will be deserting his home town for a week or two and heading off to more clement climes.

It would be nice to believe that the great British holiday is still the province of our famous coastal resorts, but facts have to be faced - in 2000, UK residents made 48 million visits abroad for leisure purposes, an increase of 13 million over 1996!

Competition from sun-stroked Spanish days and balmy, beery Balearic nights, along with the increasing appeal and accessibility, both financial and practical, of faraway destinations such as the USA, South America and the Far East, is making it tough for British resorts, and the entertainment venues within those resorts, to attract holiday trade. What was once a certainty - clubs packed, three or four months a year, with happy holidaymakers, spending freely and without a care in the world - is now an uphill struggle, where the quality of live entertainment can mean the difference between triumph or a trouncing.

Robin Duke, the respected, veteran showbusiness editor of Blackpool's daily Gazette newspaper, says "It's not the actual entertainment that's changed over the years, but the amount of it. Most clubs had top acts on every night, but now only the biggest ones can afford that. Social clubs have as good as done away with the summer season concept because of cost and competition from in-house hotel entertainment and other nightclub-style venues."

The biggest of the 40 or so social clubs in the Blackpool area, boasting over 4,000 members and a 380-seat cabaret room, is the legendary Layton Institute. Concert Secretary Brian White admits "It's a lot harder than it used to be. You can't just open your doors when you're in a resort like you can when you're inland, as there's so much competition and you have to compete."

With funds readily available to stage mightier-than-the-average entertainment, Layton Institute's fully produced and choreographed show for 2002 will run Tuesday to Saturday for a 10-week season, between August Bank Holiday and the end of the illuminations in October, which attracts coach parties from as far away as north Wales. The show features former 'Paper Lace' member Carlo Paul Santanna, vocalist Keily Hampson, a compère and two dancers, with a different guest comedian, including clubland favourites Trevor Wallace and George King and ventriloquist Paul Levent, joining the show each week. A duo or comedian to entertain Sunday night guests completes Layton's ambitious seasonal line-up, but the fact that the club's summer show used to begin in May is a fair pointer to just how sticky it can be for even the most popular venues. Out of season, Brian White stages entertainment at weekends only, normally bands, trios or a comic plus a support act, usually a solo singer.

The club's annual talent contest runs every Friday for 15 weeks from March until the end of June and ensures full houses early season. Robin Duke, one of this year's judges, says, "Karaoke is much maligned, but it's producing the next generation of clubland singers. The thin line between karaoke and clubland is getting thinner, because so few clubs have live entertainment and are using the kind of self-contained acts that they used to shun."

Agent Margaret Gray of MG Entertainments in Wigan disagrees. "Years ago, there were some wonderful acts, but you have to be careful who you use now because a lot of them are just karaoke singers and they're not really very good." Margaret's agency books artistes into most of the top social club venues in and around Wigan and handles some of clubland's most popular up-and-coming entertainers.

"Carlo Paul Santanna is, without doubt, the top male vocal club act" she says, "and there are several other popular acts like Keily Hampson and Leslee Scott." She also praises the 'Smart Moves' duo - booked for the Layton Institute next summer - singer Jeff Lee, girl vocal trio 'Back 2 The Future', young comic Terry Cotta and singing duo 'Harper', the sons of comedian Bobby Ball of Cannon and Ball fame, who are a popular attraction at venues including St. Pauls Labour Club in Leigh and the Byron Street WMC in Oldham.

Clubs and venues in other resorts across the country are finding it tough to compete, particularly with so many bars and entertainment venues now themed to youth. Alan Egerton of the Newquay Conservative Club has live entertainment every Saturday all year round but, he says, "it's tough, because Newquay is such a young town now. We are catering almost exclusively to the older crowd, coach parties and locals." In sunny Essex, the Clacton Conservative Club packs its 200-seat cabaret room all year round by offering local bands and comedians, plus acts from as far away as Ipswich.

At Skegness Working Man's Club, in that most bracing of resorts on the Lincolnshire coast, secretary Jim Grocock books acts every Saturday during the three-month summer season, with an organist or karaoke every other night, whereas in the winter just the organist entertains two nights a week. Just how marked competition is in the town can be gauged by a glance at the coming attractions at the Embassy Centre, which boats appearances by top names such as Roy 'Chubby' Brown, The Chuckle Brothers and Ken Dodd and 80 miles up the coast in Great Yarmouth, local social clubs have to contend with local appearances by a raft of top-line entertainers including Joe Pasquale, Little and Large and Buck's Fizz.

In Blackpool, the competition is even greater, with Leisure Parcs, the owners of all three piers, the Winter Gardens and the Tower, offering a vast array of top talent including spectacular shows starring the likes of Bernie Clifton, The Bachelors, Roy Walker, Stan Boardman, Joe Longthorne and Freddie Starr, plus full musical productions of 'Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat', 'Blood Brothers' and 'Lord Of The Dance'.

Further up the coast in Morecambe, Charlie Stewart, secretary of the Gordon Working Men's Club and Institute, presents live, self-contained acts all year around, four nights a week, in the 200-seat cabaret room, with bingo or karaoke on other nights. "We rely very much on holidaymakers during the season" Charlie says. "We're the only club locally that does entertainment all week and people get to know about that, so they come to us - most of them have been visiting us for a long, long time!"

"The majority of summer entertainment has to cater to families, or you're going to fail" says Kevin Lucock, director of the Trecco Bay Holiday Park in Porthcawl, mid Glamorgan. With some 3,000 static caravans and many day visitors, the park is packed all summer long and the 1,200-seat Showdome family room and Nite Out cabaret bar must, between them, offer entertainment for all ages from, says Kevin, "0 to 90!" The park boasts a full team of resident entertainers during the summer season, augmented by visiting, family-based cabaret artistes. "We have music, speciality acts, magic and comedians who don't spout filth" says Kevin, "as well as talent contests, the good old 'bonny baby'-type competitions and the inevitable karaoke."

"The names of the entertainers on the circuit don't change much over the years" says the Blackpool Gazette's Robin Duke, who also pens reviews for weekly showbusiness newspaper 'The Stage'. "Good acts like 'Smart Moves', Trevor Wallace, Ricky Livid and Peter Harper are the most popular in social clubs, while the bigger names like [comedian] Mick Miller and [singer] Berni Flint play venues like the Talk of the Coast at the Viking Hotel or the Alabama Showbar, where there's a proper staged show. In the old days, people were kicked out of their hotels at night and went to a social club, because that's what they were used to. Now they can either stay in for the hotel's own in-house entertainment or go to places that put on basically WMC-style acts but with more gloss."

From his base in Southend-on-Sea, top agent Barry Collings books some of the biggest names in showbusiness into every manner of venue and personally represents Edwin Starr, George McCrae, Boney M, Leo Sayer and the Flying Pickets. "Southend's more a day-out-at-the-seaside than a holiday resort, so there's no summer shows" he says, "but the Cliffs Pavilion is always sold out and many of the local discos have regular live PAs." Barry books tribute acts and fully-produced shows into holiday camps including Butlins at Bognor, Skegness and Minehead and Pontins in Lowestoft, where business is, he says, "very buoyant".

It's apparent from this quick charabanc tour that seaside clubland is well-placed to compete strongly in the entertainment market. "I'm optimistic about the future of entertainment in resorts" says Robin Duke. "I judge several talent shows and there have been some very good artistes competing who will always be able to work on the club and summer season circuit. Mind you, I've yet to see the next 'Westlife'!"

*The Top Ten Most Popular Club Acts:

Carlo Paul Santanna

Smart Moves

Jeff Lee

Harper

Ricky Livid

Mike Dennett and Chic

Keily Hampson

Leslee Scott

Terry Cotta

Trevor Wallace

*Source: MG Entertainments (01942 494757) and

various concert secretaries/club managers

**The Top Ten Most Popular Seaside Show Acts

Edwin Starr

Real Thing

Maizie Williams' Boney M

George McCrae

Gwen Dickey's Rose Royce

Leo Sayer

The Flying Pickets

'C'mon Everybody' rock 'n' roll tribute show

'Abbalike' - Abba tribute show

'Village Boys' - Village People tribute show

**Source: Barry Collings Entertainments (01702 330005) and various agents/bookers

The website of the Agents Association of Great Britain is at www.agents-uk.com

ends

The UK's most popular club artiste - Carlo Paul Santanna

Very few artistes appearing in cabaret can claim to have such a varied and full career spanning three decades and yet still attracting new admirers and fans all over the world. Born in England to a Polish father and an Italian mother, he turned professional in 1972 after playing guitar and singing in various groups and was soon spotted by Keith Potger of the New Seekers. Keith was reforming the famous Springfields and offered the position of lead vocalist to Carlo, but at the same time, he was offered the chance to join a new group that was about to be offered a recording contract. This group was to be known as Paper Lace.

Carlo joined the group and went on to have worldwide hit records including "Billy Don't be a Hero," "The Night Chicago Died" and "Hitchin' a Ride." Such success meant numerous television appearances all over the world as well as appearing in two Royal Variety Performances at the London Palladium.

Carlo left "Paper Lace" in 1975 to pursue a solo career. With a repertoire that includes songs by Mario Lanza, Pavarotti, Elvis and Michael Bolton, plus some amazing solos on guitar and mandolin, Carlo Paul Santanna is now in great demand throughout the world.