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What have Lester Piggott, Uri Geller, Ronnie Barker and Michael Jackson all got in common? No, this isn't the start of a bad joke...They're actually all members of Idle Working Men's Club. Idle Club President Frank Johnson explains: "We've written to one or two of them and made them honorary members. Uri Geller was going to Michael Jackson's wedding and he said, 'Can I have an honorary membership for Michael as well? I want to give it him as a wedding present!' And so Uri Geller gave Michael Jackson a membership. We've got about 150 honorary members worldwide. We get people writing from Canada, New Zealand, and Arab Emirates...Just for the name Idle Working Men's Club."

Idle Working Men's Club

But not all working men's clubs are lucky enough to have become international sensations. The number of clubs across the country has fallen from 4,000 in the 1970s, at the height of their popularity, to today's number of 2,320. George Dawson is the Working Men's Club and Institute Union (C&IU) Secretary for Bradford, Airedale and Halifax and he believes that clubs have taken a hit recently: "The number of Working Men's Clubs' have been declining for a while...A lot of the clubs are just struggling staying on at the moment...Over the last couple of years a lot of them have been using their reserves up to stay in business."

George thinks he knows the main reason for the downfall of clubs: "I think the biggest problem is the smoking ban. And then everything has come off that. Obviously our weather in this country isn't that good for people to be standing outside [to smoke]. And you don't just lose the smokers. You lose the other people that came in with them. I used to have four couples that came in on a Saturday night in the lounge and spend quite a lot of money. And only two out of the eight people smoke but one couple stopped coming and then the other couple stopped coming and then they've all stopped coming."

Idle Working Men's Club President Frank Johnson thinks that, as well as the smoking ban and cheap alcohol, another issue is conspiring against working men's clubs: "Cheap booze in supermarkets, the smoking ban and sunshine! It all follows on. They [punters] get their cheap booze at the supermarket, they have a barbecue at home and they have a smoke! So sunshine's another one of the three evils."

Frank @ Idle WMC

All 59 working men's clubs left in Bradford, Airedale and Halifax have to battle with these problems. But Idle's Club President Frank Johnson believes that each area also has its own individual issues to cope with too: "Each club in each area has its own way of doing things. Things ruin clubs, other than smoking and cheap booze. It's people moving out of areas, buildings being knocked down – lots of flats knocked down and people move on. A club needs a catchment area and if the catchment area is taken away then the club loses its membership. I feel really sorry for them [other clubs] because they all work hard."

So how, then, has Idle Working Men's Club done so well?: "It's the area really...We put live music on Saturdays and Sundays, and we get a good turn out, especially on a Saturday night. The Games Room ticks over nicely. We have a lot of events on...We have live entertainment...Ladies' darts and a chess night...We're doing well. Supposedly we're a non-profit making organisation – all C&IU Clubs are really...It's having to work out how much to put prices up for the club. If you're under price then you're in debt at the end of the year and if you over price it then you've made a profit at the end of the year. Last year we made a profit of £4,200. It's been many years since that's happened."

However, even though the club is doing well, Frank says that club life isn't like it used to be: "It'll never get back to where it was. Never. We used to have to teams in the games leagues and when they were away from home – no matter which team was playing – we always took a full bus." Frank believes the decline in industry is to blame: "The industry in this area used to be really intense...There were seven mills, there were three or four big engineering firms, and there was Jowett Cars...and they went. The big printers across the road at one time was one of the largest in Europe – that's gone...But that's happened in all areas, all towns and villages."

It's obvious that Frank has a long and rich history with Idle Working Men's Club: "My family has been involved with the club since the 1920s. There's a photograph of the club opening in 1927 and my grandma and granddad are in the picture. They were Stewardess and Steward. My grandma was Secretary of the Ladies Committee as it was then. My Dad was the President. Me and my brothers all joined when we were 18. I'm 72 now. About fifteen years ago someone asked me to come onto the Committee as they were short of members – as we still are now – and I then became Trustee...and now I'm President and part time Secretary as well!"

With great experience in 'clubland' what does Frank expect to happen in the future?: "It's going to get harder. It's going to get very hard, because as long as breweries and the Chancellor put the prices of the product up...we've got to put it up. Then it comes back to the supermarket selling it [alcohol] cheaper...One supermarket was selling lager for 50p a can recently, that's nearly a pint. We can't compete with that."

But, despite those worries, Frank is in no doubt about what makes working men's clubs tick: "The members. The members make it. No matter how hard the committee tries, if you don't get the members taking part, socialising, coming into the place and helping out there's not a club. Without the members there's not a club."