A NEWPORT club is set to honour the legendary DJ who helped put it on the international music map.

John Peel, the late radio DJ and broadcaster, gave TJ's club the prefix "The Legendary...", and now the bar is to open a lounge in his memory.

Club owner John Sicolo told the Argus he hoped the John Peel lounge would cement the link between the famous bar and its even more famous patron.

He said: "We were renovating the place when John died and we just felt it would be a fitting way to remember him.

"He gave us, and the bands that play here, a lot of support over the years and he was a really nice man. We just wanted a permanent memorial to him."

John Peel died in October after a heart attack while on holiday in Peru. He had been a massive supporter of Gwent bands who played at TJ's, such as the 60ft Dolls and Dub War during the 1990s.

The John Peel lounge will be opened to the public for the first time tonight when In the Cage, a Genesis tribute band, will be taking to the stage. The event is being held in aid of the Noah's Ark Appeal for the Children's Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

But the lounge will get an official opening later in the month by new Welsh Radio One DJ Huw Stevens.

Mr Peel's widow Sheila and former producer are also being invited to the event, the date of which has not yet been set.