🔗 Share this article

Sam Fender has given the entirety of his £25,000 award prize money to the trust for venues, which operates to save the UK's grassroots music venues.

The star was given the prize on mid-October as his third album his work was chosen as the best record of the last 12 months.

He has chosen to donate the funds to the trust, in recognition of the crucial part small stages played in his initial steps.

"I would not have achieved what I am doing today if it weren't for all the performances I performed around the region, and further afield, when I was beginning," stated the artist. "These spaces are legendary, but they are in difficulty."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – approximately 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

Over the past year, well-known musicians such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports independent venues.

Sam Fender also participated, generating more than £100,000 on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.

These funds assisted venues that were dealing with possible closure due to difficulties stemming from flooding, fires and personal losses, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and noise complaints.

Other venues obtained monetary aid in upgrading infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and fans.

"The concept that money from shows in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just logical," the star has commented.

He is not the first artist to give his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.

Back when Pulp won the prize in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, lead singer the singer announced that the band would contribute their winnings to the organization War Child.

During 2002, musician Ms Dynamite split her prize across multiple good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"I also donated a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," she told outlets.

Previously, Ezra Collective donated their winnings to the youth organization that developed their act, in addition to other local music groups.

Also winners that year the group donated their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was identified with the disease.

"Receiving the award was ample," said singer Small. "The money was the bonus but we could do without the extra, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched somebody else's life."

Recently, the MVT shared it had saved several small stages in that region, by bringing them into public stewardship.

The Joiners in Southampton and The Croft in that location were purchased under the public acquisition program, which is supported by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the venues.