CLUB 40, one of Hamilton's two remaining nightclubs, is to close unless its owners are able to find new premises.

The Front Street nightspot has operated under a variety of names and a series of owners since it first opened to the public more than 40 years ago as The Forty Thieves.

A three-fold rent increase is the reason for the threatened closure. Although since given a brief stay of execution, initial plans - after the lease expired and landlord Ernest DeCouto hiked up the rent - saw the nightclub's demise at the end of this month.

"Initially, we planned on getting out at the end of this month," said co-owner Rick Olson. "We held a closing down party last Saturday, but we've since started negotiating a temporary rate to possibly get us through the season. We're trying to negotiate something for the short term.

"As for the long term, we'll have to wind things up or look for another location. It's a shame because it has been an institution through these many years and we were looking forward to the tourist season. There are not many places for them to go.

"The problem for us is finding prime space, somewhere that's conducive to a nightclub geared to tourists. But we'll definitely be here for the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, a few weeks after that."

Mr. Olson and co-owner Kevin Burrows have run the club for four seasons. Entreprenuer Terry Brannon opened the venerable institution at its present location, 119 Front Street, in 1962, according to his son, popular entertainer and businessman Tony.

"It has an incredible history," said Tony Brannon. "Every famous singer that you can imagine came through those doors then - Tom Jones, Ike and Tina Turner, Gladys Knight and the Pips, hundreds of people and all of them were amazing. In the 1970s, we had the disco crowd and in the '80s we had all sorts of rock-and-rollers, but by the end of the '80s, things started to deteriorate."

The family sold the nightclub, and the building, in 1988. According to Mr. Brannon, running a nightclub today is a far cry from what it once was.

"A lot of people often ask me why I don't get back into the nightclub business," saidMr. Brannon (pictured). "When I was younger, it was fine but today, there are so many problems - metal detectors don't belong at discotheques, that's not a night out, but then there's the behaviour of kids.

"It's a hard business. Clubs really only do business six months out of the year, and the bulk of that is on weekends. It's a tough proposal to run a nightclub.

"What we do need more of, and with all the hotels being granted concessions by Government I'd like to see, are more places like The Deep (at Elbow Beach Hotel) - places that are properly controlled with strict dress codes. Yes, it is expensive but you know you'll run into a good crowd of people.

"That's the kind of place that the people we're marketing to (as part of our tourism campaign) would like to see. There should be more hotels out there providing fun at the beach in the summer."

"It's a shame that it has to close," he added. "It's obviously going to come to the end of the line on Front Street if their landlord can get more rent from someone else. That place has historically been some place to go at night. It's now a matter of whether Club 40 want to keep going or not.

"One can only hope, if they want to keep going, that they'll find another place to open the club. Which I hope they can. It's a loss for Bermuda to have one more nightclub out of the loop."

It is understood that the building's other tenant, Magnum Power Force Gym, is to have its rent raised when its lease expires at the end of the year.