DOZENS of customers joined a silent protest outside a Poole music venue shut down over its poor crime record.

Supporters were rallying over the closure of Chords, which had its licence revoked earlier this month.

The bar’s regulars have long emphasised the venue’s peaceful atmosphere and protested in the same vein on Saturday. Around 70 supporters took part in the protest throughout the day.

Sara Coleman, one of Chords’s loyal customers, said: “People were running over from the bus station to say what a good job we were doing.

“The amount of old ladies on buses sticking their thumbs up and people in cars beeping at us was amazing.”

Chords’s owner Lorraine Vogts said she had yet to decide whether to appeal against the decision made by Poole council’s licensing sub-committee.

Chords, which hosted double Brit Award winner Tinie Tempah last year, was initially closed last month over allegations of serious crime.

The police’s case focused on four incidents related to the venue between August last year and January this year.