Music lovers have reacted with anger to the closure of one of the city's best-loved venues.

The Point, above Pub Oxford, on The Plain, closed its doors on Saturday for the last time, after its owners Six Continents (formerly Bass) pushed ahead with plans to turn it into a student theme bar.

The first-floor live music venue had been running for seven years, and has attracted such names as Catatonia, Coldplay, and The Strokes as well as scores of local bands -- many of whom turned up to play for the final night.

The Point's promoter, Mac, said: "They don't deserve to have live music in that building. The company professes to support local communities, but has treated people going to their gigs like rubbish.

"If they had spent a few quid on the place, it could have been one of the best small venues in the country. Local fans despise them for what they have done."

He vowed to continue to support local talent, by staging concerts at the Zodiac nightclub on Cowley Road.

Six Continents was also behind the decision to stop live music at the Jericho, on Walton Street, and earlier this year called time on the Monday Night Blues sessions at the Fuggle and Firkin, which hit the rocks when the pub was re-branded as The Goose at Gloucester Green.

The sessions were saved after Oxford blues-lover Philip Guy Davis moved the nights to Jongleurs Comedy Club, on Hythe Bridge Street.

Commenting on the demise of The Point, he said: "It is a sad reflection on the brewery's spin doctors, who seem to make all their decisions from the back room, without actually finding out how popular their places are.

Six Continents spokesman Janice Clark said: "The downstairs bar is targeted predominantly at students and we want to develop the upstairs as an extension of that. We wanted to invest money in the upstairs bar, but the takings did not justify it. We didn't want to disappoint the fans that use The Point but we do want a successful bar."

Ronan Munro, editor of free music magazine Nightshift, said: "It deprives Oxford music fans of the city's most important small venue, while adding to the already overcrowded theme bar market.