An Internationally renowned jazz club in Hertfordshire is being forced to close because of disability legislation which comes into force in 2004.

The Blue Note Jazz club has been operating from the cellar of the Old Town Hall in Hemel Hempstead for more than twelve years, attracting top bands to the venue. Dacorum Borough council is to provide disabled access for the upstairs theatre but say it’s impossible to convert the cellar, so the jazz club will have to go.

The council says it will find an alternative venue but the regulars at the club say nowhere else will be able to provide the sort of atmosphere which makes the Blue Note special.

Hemel Hempstead is an unlikely place to find a top-rated jazz venue, but for more than a decade the Blue Note club has built up a reputation for attracting the sort of bands who play at the likes of Ronnie Scott’s in London.

The club’s in the narrow High Street of Hemel Old Town and the first-time visitor could be forgiven for having difficulty finding their way into the cellar bar. You have to go through a green door marked 'gents toilets', but once through it, you find a spiral staircase which leads down to the club.

At the bottom of the stairs is the sort of tressle table you’d find in a school hall at lunchtime, which is covered in leaflets about events and bands in the area, and your tickets are checked. A left turn takes you through a low- beamed arch to get to the small bar where you’re served over a hatch; a right turn takes you into the club proper.

It’s a very dark, intimate place ....like every jazz club you’ve seen in the movies, with half a dozen tables and a standing area at the back You have to arrive early to get a seat, but half way through the evening the dance floor is cleared, and because the acts are usually dance bands most people are up and dancing by the end of the evening.

You get a real mix of people, many regulars, but others who’ve heard about it through friends and are trying it for the first time. There are some hard-core jazz fanatics who do resemble the characatures from the Fast Show Jazz sketches... ‘Nice!’ But many others are there because it’s one of the few places in the area where you can see high quality live music played for the love of it.

The events are held once a month on a Friday night and are always sold out, with tickets at ten pounds a head.

The announcement that the venue was going to have to close, came at the break between sets of the band GROUPO X and was met with outrage and disbelief from the crowd. At the end of the evening everyone there signed a petition protesting at the plans. The overwhelming feeling was that it’s the special atmosphere in the club which makes it so successful, and an alternative venue isn’t an option.