Blackburn live music venue set to close at 5am (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn live music venue set to close at 5am

1:30pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Blackburn By Jon Livesey, Reporter

OPEN LATER The Live Lounge

A LIVE music venue in Blackburn has been granted permission to stay open until 5am.

The Live Lounge has been given permission to open later in the early hours of Saturdays and Sundays, meaning it now has the latest licence in the town centre.

Co-owner Paul McGurty said he had been forced to apply for a later licence to meet the demands of revellers and cater to changing trends.

He said: “What we have found is that trends have changed and people don’t go out as early.

“Where as people used to go to town at eight or nine o’clock, they now go out at midnight or even later.

“So for us to keep afloat we have to stay open for longer.

“Obviously we’re a live music venue, but we try to encourage people to hang around after and we do hold club nights, so that element is pretty healthy as well.”

Elsewhere in the town centre, Liquid and Envy, the town’s largest nightclub, closes at 3.30am on Saturdays and Sundays.

Mr McGurty said there had been problems with anti-social behaviour and underage drinking in the town centre, but the majority of incidents were related to the now-closed Cheers bar.

He said he was confident the extension of the Live Lounge licence would not lead to an increase in issues.

“We have had very few incidents at our bar over the last three years and most of those have been handbags rather than serious,” he said.

“Things escalated when Cheers was open because of the younger element battling on the streets, but we did our best to keep them out of here.

“The police are very happy with the way we run things.

We have a really good relationship with the police.”

Manchester-based The Tapestry will perform at the Northgate venue on Saturday, and Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Craddock will play a gig on Thursday, March 1.