BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Hello, welcome to the programme.

Now, we hear a lot of talk about the decline of the high streets, you know, with shops closing, less buzz in the town centre, perhaps a lack of life in the local community.

And yes, that is a real issue.

But it's not what we're talking about today.

Now, what we want to ask is what's happening after dark,

to the nighttime economy in our towns and cities,

and to nightclubs in particular.

Are they facing the same kind of decline as the department stores by day?

Now, on the face of it, things are not going well.

Between 2014 and 2023, we went from a population of 1,924 night clubs to 851 today.

So over nine years, most clubs disappeared.

Now, I think there was a sense, perhaps it was just me, that the nighttime economy would grow and grow, 24-7, shops, entertainment, even banks, all open whenever you want. But does the nightclub story tell us that that was all just a daydream? That in fact, people are happy to tuck up cozily at home in small groups in the evening,

perhaps with the movie on some streaming service and some home-delivered takeaway.

Or what? What is going on? Let us reflect on nightclubs and nightlife

with three guests whose careers depend on them.

And first up is Peter Marks, chairman of Recom UK. Now, Peter, this is the UK's biggest nightclub operator,

recently announced closing half the venues and hundreds of jobs gone. Tell us what the business

was in its best days. Well, if we talk pre-COVID, we had over seven million guests come through our doors every

single year.

It was a very consistent business.

And during that time, we actually doubled profitability.

...