The Liverpool UK music venue set up with help from Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Pete Townsend is to close. Years after the after the closure of the original Cavern Club, Liverpool is to lose another seminal venue, considered as a launch pad for some of the city's best-known bands.

The Picket club staged the first gigs of bands such as Space, Cast and The La's, after being set up during the 1980s recession to help the city's emerging musicians. Philip Hayes, the venue's manager, said that despite last-ditch attempts to save it by Travis, Blur and many of Liverpool's music community, The Picket was on the brink of closure. The venue is part of The People's Centre, opened 20 years ago, in the wake of the Liverpool to London "People's March for Jobs". It also provides other facilities aimed primarily at the unemployed. The centre was launched with a concert by Paul Weller's band The Style Council. The in-house studio was started with donations from Ringo Starr, Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer, Phil Collins and others. The La's cut their first demo tape in The Picket's studio in 1984.

Fran Healy, of Travis, said the venue was the finest the band had played in during its 13-year-career."The Picket is the embodiment of what the city of Liverpool has always stood for - the humour, the warmth, the passion, the hospitality, the hope, the simplicity and the depth," he said. "By destroying The Picket, you are losing a lot more than a building. It cannot be replaced. It's a sad day for the music business, a sad day for the local community and a sad day for Liverpool."

The People's Centre now has debts of £500,000, and Liverpool City Council cannot maintain grants, which have fallen by £100,000 a year over the last five years. The centre co-ordinator, Bob Braddock, said the only way of saving the project was to sell the building and move to smaller premises, The Picket would not be a part of the smaller centre.