Reading Yates: Mass brawl pub to play pop instead of drill music Published duration 31 January

image copyright Google image caption Yates in Friar Street, Reading, will no longer play drill music

A pub whose licence was suspended due to a mass brawl on New Year's Eve will play pop instead of drill music.

Yates in Friar Street, Reading, was temporarily shut after the fight, which reportedly involved 200 people.

Councillors agreed at a meeting the pub could keep its licence under new conditions which will see its opening hours reduced.

Stonegate said it had fallen "below required standards" and would ban drill music in favour of commercial pop.

It voluntarily closed the pub following the disorder and the licence was suspended by the council on 7 January.

The venue will now close two hours earlier at 00:30 Monday to Thursday and 90 minutes earlier at 01:30 on Friday and Saturday.

Thames Valley Police officer Simon Wheeler said the new licence conditions would "de-escalate" the issues.

However, the police and council had disagreed with the drill music ban, according to the Local Democracy Service (LDRS)

Licensing officer Robert Smalley said: "That might be hard to introduce. One person's drill music could be another person's hardcore jungle."

Stonegate's lawyer Philip Colvin said the venue would now play artists like Adele and Little Mix.

"Some of these musical genres are very positive and some genres celebrate violence and attract a particular demographic of people. Drill music in particular carries a set of risk that in these premises is preferable not to be exposed to."