Looks like the scene is in the process of splitting in two. As has been said the vast majority do not care if it's OVO or boots (or even worse cds) as all they want is to go out for a few drinks and have a laugh, probably getting pissed by the end of the night too !!! That's ok, but it's not the true ethos of the scene and never was as far as I am concerned. Let them get on with their thing, we should forget about them anyway. After all who wants a load of pissheads turning up at a niter requestin the snake or frank wilson lol.
The key thing to me tho is that those of us who are really serious about the scene and want to hear the rare/underplayed/"new discoveries" need to forget about the old die hards and just do what we do best. Seek out the great venues and suport them so that the scene can continue to florish. While there are some brill nites in Manchester, Leeds and Bradford bringing in younger newer blood (vital to the scene IMHO), we have lost BIDDS and Lifeline had to cancel next weekend because of an overcrowded calendar of events. Many of the younger folk do not travel, perhaps they're put off by the images of the oldies scene and the infighting. Yet if the scene is gonna florish we need to encourage them to travel and get involved. Surely now is the time to just break away from the "old" NS scene and take the whole thing more underground again if we are not too lose more great venues and events along the way. At the end of the day it's down to us to support the rare events....otherwise we'll be moaning when they're gone !!!
Just a few thoughts, Sallie