The landlords of a new sports bar that is officially launching today in place of a much-loved alternative venue have spoken out to "set the story straight". 

Fans of The Phoenix bar in Bridge Street, High Wycombe, were left devastated at the news the music venue had become "another victim of the Covid pandemic" in May and was shutting its doors for good.

It has been replaced by The Station, a sports bar showing Sky and BT Sports. 

Bands and music fans from across the town and beyond were left angry that a venue that had done so much for aspiring musicians was going to be replaced by a "cookie cutter" sports bar - and there was anger over rumours there would no longer be live music. 

There were also fears the welcoming nature of The Phoenix, which many saw as a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, would be lost with The Station. 

But ahead of the sports bar's official launch, landlords Alex Spittles Tomlinson and Luke Gregory have spoken out. 

Alex said: "We’ve had a lot of misleading information being said about us currently and we would like to take the time to set the story straight about how we continue to grow our business and what we’re going to be about.

"We feel that being run by gay landlords we can offer something to this town that makes us a pub guaranteed to be accepting of the LGBTQ community.

"As well as this we also believe that we have a great understanding of accepting any one from any kind of background.

"Our focus for the newest place in town will be sports and live music and being able to support local talent from original bands to cover bands, from 60s nights, to rock and roll. 

"We can’t wait to meet the new and the old faces - some of the old faces may recognise myself from my days as a barman of The Phoenix a few years ago."

As part of their launch, The Station will be celebrating with free entry and music from DJ Greg J. 

They are also auctioning the original pub sign for The Phoenix - and insisted that live music will be back int he near future.