I don't know if my mate ever played Scarborough. He did all the WMC in the North, and some of the very big gigs. Apparently everyone was drunk all of the time, but he does speak well of Bob Monkhouse.
The punters used to line up beers for my dad along the top of the piano to thank him for playing. He didn't drink beer. But yes, drinks were always flowing. I'd often be perched on a stool at the bar so a kindly barmaid could keep an eye on me whilst my dad played (he was an accompanist not an act but also played in lulls between bingo/acts - he used it as time to practice his Beethoven or whatever. Was his USP that he worked in the clubs playing classical music.
I recall many nights I was plied with lager and lime because in the 60s lager was a kiddies' drink... And I can remember sometimes watching a tiny TV someone had behind the bar in one club. It was boozy but largely good-natured, or maybe I was sheltered from it - but my mum was pretty straight-laced and even she wasn't bothered by me going to WMCs. He'd get asked to play weddings as well, because folk would see him a club and want to book him. Once or twice he also played the village church organ but as an agnostic, wasn't his scene. He'd play anything, anywhere, for money. (Taxmen weren't paid much in the 60s or 70s. Like now, I guess!)
If your mate was around in the 60s and 70s they may well have bumped into him or at least heard of him. In the 50s, he played in a big band in Leeds and he was always in demand because he could play without rehearsal and accompany anyone, playing to their style. There were certain WMCs in part of the West Riding who would have, for years, listened to Chopin and Rachmaninov every weekend, before the bingo! I wish he'd still played the clubs when I was older, as I'd have even more memories and might have understood more of what was going on. Like all musicians, he'd gossip about the acts - who was a pisshead, who was great, etc. He was probably the only stone cold sober person in any club by around 10PM. He just used it to practice in-between acts and bingo - the audience was incidental.
He loved Les Dawson - found the piano thing the funniest of all because he got it.
ETA: I might have said before, but one act I do remember seeing in the clubs was Freddie Starr (just pre-TV fame). They were always pre- or post-. Anyway, given how much musicians gossip - I got to say I never heard/overheard a bad word about him and his act must have been good because I remember him and not many of the others. My dad said Diana Dors (who I love - in fact, that film she was in based on Ruth Ellis is one of my favourite movies of all time) had to have a crate of booze in the dressing room - but that sounded like stage fright (amazingly for someone so well known and who had a shot at Hollywood, I think?) I remember just feeling sad about it, when he mentioned it. She was by no means the only one, just one of the ones I remember. I still think she was an underrated actor (given we're talking the 70s, probably two reasons for that).