A BASINGSTOKE music venue has tonight announced it has closed its doors.

STAGE, the music venue found in Churchill Way, posted a statement on its Facebook page saying that it has agreed with Festival Place it would no longer operate as a music venue.

The news comes after weeks of uncertainty around the venue's future after the original company who owned it, STAGE Live Limited, went into liquidation.

Director Adam Hornblow had confirmed to The Gazette that new investors had been found and previously cancelled shows would be re-booked.

In a statement released on its Facebook, STAGE said: "Stage and Festival Place regret to announce the closure of the Basingstoke live music venture.

"It was always intended that this would be a community initiative built to bring live music to our home town but the level of financial investment required to successfully run the venue is, regrettably, beyond the commercial capability of Stage and Festival Place.

"Despite considerable efforts to finalise the announced investment, it has sadly not been possible to progress to a successful conclusion and consequently we have closed the venue.

"Our passion remains very much in bringing live music events of exceptional quality to our town and we will continue to work together with Festival Place to investigate other ways in which a community music venue can be brought to Basingstoke."