ONE of York’s favourite live music venues has been bought by a Yorkshire-born rock’n’roll star.

The owner of Montey’s bar chain have confirmed their Micklegate property has been purchased by a consortium headed by Matt Bowman, lead singer with Leeds band The Pigeon Detectives.

Jay Smith, who owns the chain, said the news was exciting, and would lead to some interesting new plans.

“This is very exciting news for us,” said Mr Smith.

“Matt has teamed up with Jon Wilkinson the general manager of the bar and has some great plans for its future. It’s not every day a rock star makes you an offer you can’t refuse.”

Montey’s Micklegate site has been open for almost five years, and in 2007 was voted best bar or pub by Loaded magazine.

The Pigeon Detectives formed in Leeds in 2006 and have released two albums, Wait For Me and Emergency, which both entered the top five of the UK Album Chart.

Singles including I Found Out, Take Her Back and This Is An Emergency, have climbed as high as number 12 in the UK charts.

But in keeping with the chain’s slogan “independent bars for independent people”, the band’s biggest success has been on the UK Independent chart, where five of their eight singles reached the number one slot.

Mr Bowman is not the first rock star to buy a bar in his home region, as Bono and The Edge from U2 co-own The Clarence in Dublin and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helder and ex-bassist Andy Nicholson own The Bowery bar, in Sheffield City Centre.