IN the past, if you wanted a little muscle on your door, then you simply gave Thugs-U-Like a call and they would send round a couple of heavies. Their pedigree may have been questionable; in fact, you may have wondered if they had records longer than the riff-raff you wanted to keep from your premises. But, then again, they looked right...

The tight-fitting black suit, maybe some shades - and, of course, the unspoken menace. These guys simply oozed machismo; they were not to be messed with.

But often the dark glasses hid predatory eyes, scanning faces for a flicker of defiance, a hint of dissent, just enough to flip the switch. It would start with a denial of admission, a taunt or a shove, but it was meant as provocation. Any reaction and, within seconds, someone would be lying bleeding on the floor.

Today, or so the leisure industry would have us believe, The Bouncer is a dying breed. A metamorphosis is in progress, and over the past five or six years, bouncers have evolved to become Door Staff, an altogether different animal.

For a start, they are no longer exclusively male. There is a growing number of women patrolling the entrances to pubs and clubs. Neither is the new order developing in parts of the North-East built on a few cosmetic changes. The quiet revolution is producing professionals, capable not only of remarkable restraint, but also with the sophistication to assess stressful or dangerous situations and to devise an appropriate response.

And, for once, neither London nor Manchester is home to the new way of thinking. It is York which has been the test-bed since 1995 - and is still pioneering the Doorsafe Register today.

In fact, with Richmondshire now joining the scheme, licensing laws in most of North Yorkshire dictate that, if you want to work on a door, you have to be on the Register; to be on it, you have to complete The Course, co-ordinated and run by the police; to complete The Course, you have to pay £140.

It also requires a clean record and commitment - more than enough to deter the average gorilla who used to squeeze into a dinner jacket on a Saturday night to wait for a chance to commit GBH.

And if you join The Course, as I did, you will also be needing your brain. The complexities of the British licensing laws, what exactly amounts to "reasonable force", controlled drugs, the symptoms to watch for in those who use them, and even First Aid are all part of the package.

So, too, are conflict management, customer care - and learning how to say sorry.

Former police inspector Geoff Cooling leads the instruction, emphasising time and again the importance of knowledge. Door staff must know the law: what constitutes discrimination, for example; that even a hand on the shoulder can constitute an assault; or that it is only illegal to drink alcohol under the age of five. Equally important is a cool head and a firm hand, and the latter only if the first one fails.

"It's no good escorting someone to the door and then, once you've got them outside, giving them a good kicking, no matter how much you may be tempted," he says. "You have done your job by then. If you lay into them, you are just putting it on the line."

And The Course - 17 burly men and one feisty woman - is giving every indication it is listening hard. By now we have discovered any sign of a lapse in concentration will attract a quick-fire question, and a gentle taunting if you get the answer wrong.

Perhaps as a result, only two people have ever failed the exam at the end of two days of instruction. By far the majority will line up to collect their badge after a mentally demanding 48 hours.

But that is not the end of it. "We check everyone on the Door Safe Register every three months to see how they are getting on and they have to go through a refresher course every three years," says Mr Cooling. Still, there are new recruits ready to go through The Course, and those who made up the most recent batch insist it has nothing to do with the possibility of a little legitimate violence.

"It's a laugh and I enjoy the banter with the customers," says Danny, who works in York. "I used to spend £40 in one night. Now, I can still enjoy the atmosphere, but I'm being paid."

And there are no qualms either about the principles of customer care, which years ago may have seemed so alien to the profession.

"If you can have a bit of banter with the customers, then there's a better chance they're going to respond the right way if there's trouble," says Marc, who also works in the city. "There will be some who are going to take advantage and think they can get away with things just because you seemed friendly, but the training means you know how to handle it."

Hannah, from Knaresborough, adds: "Like we have been told, knowledge is power. If we know the law and what we can and cannot do, we are going to go to work feeling a lot more confident."

The last word should go to PC David Boag, who now masterminds the developing network and is convinced it has already made a difference.

"York was once losing its reputation as a nice place to spend the evening. The Micklegate Run (a challenge which involves drinking in every one of a concentration of pubs along one street in the city centre) was popular, which meant there were plenty of problems," he says. "However, the Doorsafe Register is one aspect of a partnership between the police, the licensees and the agencies which provide security - and it means, if someone is causing trouble in one pub, the word is passed around.

"People have now cottoned on to the fact that, if they misbehave, their evening will be over as, no matter where they go, they will be refused admission."

Equally, door staff know they can no longer rule with their fists. Most pubs and clubs have decided its in their interests to have meeters and greeters rather than hired goons on their premises. The Bouncer, it seems, has been shown the door