ON a newly blackened wall of the Victoria Vaults is a quote from the Royal She who is not amused.

"Give my people plenty of beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them," said Queen Victoria.

Well, there is plenty of beer at the Viccy Vaults in Nunnery Lane, with a new cellar in place, but there has been a revolution of sorts under landlords Pete Connell and Mick Baker, who bought the long-established York pub last July.

A new year brings new flooring, a new stage, backdrop and PA system, with former Shed Seven sound engineer and manager Dave Leaper in charge of the £4,000 sound system for all ticketed events.

A new philosophy for booking acts will bring to the Vaults such acts as Happy Mondays' Bez on January 27, The Godfathers on February 24, The Vibrators on March 30, UK Subs on April 26, The Sex Pistols Experience on July 20 and The Lurkers on September 29, to complement the covers bands and York musicians.

Out goes all the seating at the back; in come a capacity of 100 to 120 for gigs, guitars on the walls and black-and-white photographs of The Stone Roses, Stereophonics and more besides.

York Press:

Bez, from Happy Mondays, will be launching the Victoria Vaults' upgraded music programme with a DJ set on January 27

"When we bought the pub last summer, we let it run for two or three months without doing anything, and then we decided we needed to upgrade it as a venue," says Pete, who also runs the IG Property student letting agency and has more than 30 years' experience as a musician, at present in the band The Dark Flowers.

"We'd always had covers bands here but we decided to do ticketed events too with bigger name bands, with Bez from Happy Mondays as the big-name launch act on January 27, doing a DJ set of Hacienda classics, punk and ska plus some old favourites to get you going."

Dave Sollitt has come on board to co-promote the gigs with Pete. "The pub was known as a local band/covers band venue, but our attitude has altered, the management has changed, and we're booking bigger names like Mark Burgess, from The Chameleons. People came from Manchester, Glasgow, Stoke, for that gig, and the benefit of the refurbishment is that you'll be seeing bands up close at a proper music venue now," he says.

"We'll be looking to do one or two ticketed events a month on top of the local bands we book and the usual Sunday afternoon live music that always runs from 4pm," says Pete.

"We're being 'fan boys' now, putting on bands we like and responding to what people tell us they want us to put on," says Dave. "On top of that, if you book for UK Subs, you'll get a ticket for The Lurkers for free."

York Press:

The Godfathers: booked into the Victoria Vaults for February 24

Vinyl Eddie, who has 25,000 albums at his Tadcaster Road vinyl record store, will be sponsoring the PA system and will be involved in record fairs and Record Store Day events at the Viccy Vaults, as well as selling tickets for gigs from his shop. Tickets also will be available in person from the pub and online at wegottickets.com.

"We'll also hire out the pub for private parties and we'll do the same for album launches for free of charge with us taking the bar takings," says Pete. "Access For Music will have a night here once a month with up-and-coming musicians, organised by Charlie Daykin, and we'll also give them the chance to be the support act for the likes of UK Subs too."

Meanwhile, scooter and Mod enthusiast Mick Baker has overseen the refurbishment of the beer garden with the red frame of a Vesper 150 emerging from the wall – "its lights come on"," he says – and a sign that reads "Lambretta Parking Only".

As for the beers, Queen Victoria would be delighted to learn that bar manager Lucy Cordukes has a good selection with plenty of real ales from within a 25-mile radius of the free house.

For full details of upcoming gigs at the Viccy Vaults, visit victoriavaults.com. Up next will be Ten Millennia tonight, 8pm; The Dark Flowers, Saturday, 8pm, and The Blueflies on Sunday afternoon at 4pm.