IT is jam night at the Frog Hall. You can tell because the lampposts outside are jumping in time to the bass line. They like their music at the Frog Hall, and they like it loud. The brash chords of The Who's Substitute leak from the brickwork. Even before crossing the threshold you realise here is a pub that knows how to party.

Inside the Layerthorpe boozer, two lads play a frame in the pool room while another two post coins into the fruit machines. The snug is deserted.

All the action is in the main bar. On stage are the three piece Rocket3. They are kicking off the jam session with some impressive covers.

It is standing room only. Sometimes, landlord Wayne Allan had told me earlier, the pub is so crowded that he has to take the bar door off its hinges. I can well believe it.

After a couple more numbers, received with enthusiastic cheers, an invitation is made to the other musicians to get up and strut their stuff. Two members of another band, Stealer, take to the stage along with Pete Willow.

Pete does his rendition of Route 66. He apologises in advance if he gets some of the names of the American cities wrong, because "I've only got a road map of Wales".

Later landlord Wayne does a stint on the drums. For 12 years he was the drummer with Hard Lines and boy does he give that kit some hammer.

Pints are sunk, feet are tapping. Above the music, jokes are being shouted into ears. There is a lot of laughter.

Every time someone walks in the bar, they are greeted by name, with a slap on the back and their drink on the bar. After only a few minutes, I feel like a regular.

It's that sort of place. At one point, a real regular, Les Pickard, grabs my elbow and yells: "I just had to come and say: you can't buy this atmosphere. You can't buy it."

He's right. But that hasn't stopped a developer buying the Frog Hall with a view to demolishing it. A video store is earmarked for the site, with a drive-through McDonald's part of the same plans.

That would be a devastating blow to the locals and musicians who call the Frog Hall their second home. The Frog, built in the 1930s on the site of a Victorian pub, has got everything you could want from your local. Good beer, good mates, a good laugh.

That afternoon Wayne had pointed out two trophies behind the bar. Monday night's dominoes team have just won the league. Toni Smallwood, a member of the Tuesday night ladies darts team, has won the individual championship.

On another night, a few pints are up for grabs in the weekly quiz. Sunday, meanwhile, is karaoke. "We go for entertainment value rather than vocal talent," Wayne explains. "Everybody's a star here."

He has run the Frog with wife Deanna since August. The first few months were difficult, as they had to root out a handful of troublemakers. Now the place is rocking again: bands are booked up until next January and Wayne wants to build a sun terrace.

Regulars cannot believe that the place is threatened with demolition. "You couldn't recreate the atmosphere in here," says Andy Graham.

Sandra Pickard says: "It's a pub where a woman can come in on her own." Husband Les is organiser of the pub's annual trip to the rugby league final today. He nods. "Everybody knows everybody."

As he said, you really can't buy an atmosphere like that.