MySQL multi column search

Easy! Change your ORs to ANDs so that the final statement reads:

Your statement essentially needs to look like this:

SELECT * FROM table

WHERE (vname LIKE '%value1%' OR vtype LIKE '%value1%' OR vdesc LIKE '%value1%')

AND (vname LIKE '%value2%' OR vtype LIKE '%value2%' OR vdesc LIKE '%value2%')

AND (vname LIKE '%value3%' OR vtype LIKE '%value3%' OR vdesc LIKE '%value3%')

so it ensures that value1 exists in one of the 4 fields, that value2 exists in one of the 4 fields, and value3 exists in one of the 4 fields, etc.

If that's not sufficient, use PHP to iterate a larger number of results and filter down the results.

$words = $_GET['freetext'];
if(empty($words)){
//redirect somewhere else!
}
$parts = explode(" ",trim($words));
$clauses1=array();
foreach ($parts as $part){
    //function_description in my case ,  replace it with whatever u want in ur table
    $clauses1[]="vname LIKE '%" . mysql_real_escape_string($part) . "%'";
}
$clause1=implode(' AND ' ,$clauses1);

$parts = explode(" ",trim($words));
$clauses2=array();
foreach ($parts as $part){
    //function_description in my case ,  replace it with whatever u want in ur table
    $clauses2[]="vtype LIKE '%" . mysql_real_escape_string($part) . "%'";
}
$clause2=implode(' AND ' ,$clauses2);

$parts = explode(" ",trim($words));
$clauses3=array();
foreach ($parts as $part){
    //function_description in my case ,  replace it with whatever u want in ur table
    $clauses3[]="vdesc LIKE '%" . mysql_real_escape_string($part) . "%'";
}
$clause3=implode(' AND ' ,$clauses3);

$parts = explode(" ",trim($words));
$clauses4=array();
foreach ($parts as $part){
    //function_description in my case ,  replace it with whatever u want in ur table
    $clauses4[]="vkeywords LIKE '%" . mysql_real_escape_string($part) . "%'";
}

Change the ORs to ANDs on the final SQL statement.

$sql="SELECT vid, vname, vsuburb, vtype, vlogo, suburb.sname 
      FROM venue, suburb 
      WHERE
      venue.vsuburb = suburb.sid
      AND (($clause1) AND ($clause2) AND ($clause3) AND ($clause4))";

This would make the final query look something like this:

SELECT vid, vname, vsuburb, vtype, vlogo, suburb.sname 
FROM venue, suburb 
WHERE
venue.vsuburb = suburb.sid
AND
(vname = 'london' OR vname = 'wildlife' OR vname='museum') AND (vtype = 'london' OR vtype = 'wildlife' OR vtype ='museum') AND (vkeywords='london' OR vkeywords='wildlife' OR vkeywords='museum') AND (vdescription='london' OR vdescription='wildlife' OR vdescription='museum')

+1 to @Rogier, full-text search seems the best solution. Another idea could be concatenating the name, type, keywords and description attributes and searching in the concatenated attribute:

SELECT ..., CONCAT_WS(' ', name, type, keywords, description) AS c
FROM ...
WHERE c LIKE '%value1%' AND c LIKE '%value2%' ...

It may possible to store the result of concatenation in a persistent attribute etc.