DOUBLE celebrations are under way for a family whose Kidderminster watering hole has been named one of the best live music pubs in the country. Claire Hipkiss and her father Dave Hipkiss of The boars Head Tap House celebrate the award.

Father and son licensees Dave and Andrew Hipkiss, who have run the Boars Head Tap House for the last seven years, are celebrating finishing joint second in the Union Pub company's awards for excellence - for best live music and entertainment pub of the year.

As well as scooping the prestigious accolade, the Worcester Street venue is also featured in the highly acclaimed Campaign for Real Ale Good Beer Guide for the seventh consecutive year.

And Dave, who was a commercial diver in the Middle East before he turned his hand to pulling pints in 12 years ago, said he was "incredibly proud" of his family's achievements.

He said the pub, which his wife Laura and 30-year-old daughter Claire also run, also has a new £6,000 sound system enabling bands to play without bringing their own public address system.

The 59-year-old, whose family lived in Cyprus, Egypt and Bahrain before the Gulf War struck in 1991, added: "There's only two of us in Kidderminster in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide so it's quite an achievement because we do take great pride in our beers.

"And they gave us a good write-up too."

He added he was thrilled to have finished joint second in the annual awards of the company - which has 1,100 pubs - and put the achievement down to his 31-year-old son's hard work in booking the acts.

The venue's jam-packed October programme includes performances by The Bullfrogs tonight, The Aliens next Thursday, classic soul and blues singers Ben and Jamie on Sunday, October 26, and "indie" rock band S.O Blue on Thursday, October 30.

Dave's daughter Claire, who runs the pub's kitchen, said she was particularly looking forward to an "open mic" session on Sunday - which allows visiting artists to perform in front of a crowd.

She said of the evening: "Anyone can play who brings their own instrument and sometimes they can borrow them off other people in here.

"It's popular because we get quite a few students from the college who come over for it.

"We get all different kinds of songs and just organise the evening around the number of people we've got."

More information on any of the events can be obtained by calling 01562 68776.