🔗 Share this article

Sam Fender has given the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize prize money to the trust for venues, which operates to protect the Britain's grassroots live music spots.

He was given the award on 16 October as his new release People Watching was chosen as the best record of the past year.

Fender has opted to give the cash to the MVT, in appreciation of the vital role small stages had in his beginning days.

"I couldn't be pursuing this success if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the North East, and further afield, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are facing challenges."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these venues have ceased operations – approximately 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

Over the past year, top acts including Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a modest fee to their admission fees, which goes to help local stages.

Sam Fender also took part, collecting over £100k on his recent tour to help numerous small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.

These funds assisted venues that were facing possible closure due to challenges caused by floods, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and sound issues.

Additional spaces were granted funding support in modernizing infrastructure and technical equipment that helped artists and fans.

"The notion that money from shows in big venues backs the independent spots, where it all starts for performers like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has commented.

Fender is far from the only musician to give his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.

Back when the band won the prize in the year 1996 for their album Different Class, lead singer Cocker announced that the group would donate their prize money to the non-profit the charity.

During 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite split her prize between several charities, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"Additionally, I gave a grand to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to outlets.

In recent years, Ezra Collective contributed their funds to the youth organization that supported their act, as well as other local music groups.

Also the 1994 recipients they gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was found to have the illness.

"Winning was ample," said artist Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected another person's life."

In the past week, the trust announced it had saved two small stages in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.

The Joiners in the city and the other in the city were purchased under the public acquisition program, which is supported by Arts Council England and music fans who purchase "shares" in the buildings.