Being there, have a ball a couple of hours before midnight? (10)
I believe the answer is:
attendance
'being there' is the definition.
(to attend something is to be at it)
'a ball a couple of hours before midnight?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'have' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attendance that I've seen before include "how many are watching?" , "Act of being present" , "Service" , "all that turned up" , "Number present" .)