Iconic venue which hosted Tom Jones, Catatonia and Victoria Beckham up for sale

An iconic venue which hosted stars including Stereophonics, Catatonia and Victoria Beckham has gone up for sale.

The Pop Factory in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, is a converted soft drinks factory which became a music venue and TV studio in 2000, officially opened by Sir Tom Jones who smashed a bottle of dandelion and burdock against its walls.

The venue became the set of numerous shows including The Pop Factory, which gave Steve Jones his first presenting job, before being bought by the charity Valleys Kids in 2012.

Its owners have now put the site up for sale, with a group of artists, organisations and local residents hoping to buy it and bring it into community ownership.

The former Corona pop factory, first opened in the 1890s as Welsh Hills Mineral Waters, closed in 1987 and was on the point of dereliction when it was taken over by the production company Avanti Media.

Avanti reopened it as The Pop Factory multimedia complex in September 2000, which became the base for a string of music TV shows broadcast on BBC, ITV and S4C.

These included the music show The Pop Factory, presented by Steve Jones and Liz Fuller, and even a chat show hosted by the late Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable.

The venue hosted performances from Catatonia, Queens of the Stone Age, Cerys Matthews, Tom Jones, Stereophonics and Victoria Beckham.

Radio Wales presenter Bethan Elfyn worked at the Pop Factory during the early stages of her career working on TV shows.

"It was a wonderful, energetic, fun place for young people to work, not just locally," she said.

"People came from all over south Wales to work there. They learnt about the TV industry. They learned about the music industry, putting on gigs."

She said the the stars who made their way to Porth brought "pazazz to the Rhondda Valleys".

"There'd be American pop punk bands, one of the highlights was Posh Spice came to play. That was a big day in the Pop Factory.

"It is quite challenging, not just getting big artists to come out of London, but then drive down the motorway to Cardiff and then drive into the valleys and even driving into the Pop Factory itself.

"I'll never forget Status Quo's double-decker tour bus arriving with a huge wardrobe of denim ready for Stuart Cable's TV show."

The Pop Factory was taken over in 2012 by charity Valleys Kids, and it has housed arts, music and community events since.

The charity has said it now needs to sell the Pop Factory to focus on its other activities.

The building has been listed for £475,000 and a group of artists, organisations and local residents under the name The Pop Factory Ltd is now attempting to buy the building and bring it "into community ownership".

Josh Evans, a sound engineer who is part of the team trying to raise the money needed to buy the site, said he could not imagine the area without it.

"I started going there when I was a teenager pretty much every Friday or Saturday and watching live local bands and that really inspired me to pick up a guitar, but also to get into live events and working as a sound engineer, which is what I do now," he said.

Evans is hoping for some celebrity endorsements as part of his campaign.

"If you look at our Instagram, we're following all the Joneses, because when I was doing some research, Alex Jones, Gethin Jones, Steve Jones, they all started out presenting here," he said.

"I think it would be a total loss [for the venue to close].

"There's a lot still going on there. There's a community sharing shop. where people from disadvantaged backgrounds can come and, you know, not just get some of the stuff that they need, but also create friendships and be a part of something.

"If we took on the building, I'd like to think we would carry that through, but also give a place for creativity again, a place for performers and artists to come and showcase and to learn and to inspire but also be inspired."

Jennifer Hare, who runs one of the organisations based in the building, said they hoped to raise £250,000 by September and get the rest from funding organisations.

"We're a group of all sorts of types of charitable organisations artists, musicians, businesses, there's even a church based in the building. So, we just want to keep it going and open it up to similar people and groups like us," she said.