🔗 Share this article

Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound award cash to the trust for venues, which functions to protect the UK's grassroots live music spots.

The star was awarded the cheque on 16 October as his third album the album was declared the top album of the past year.

Fender has chosen to hand the money over to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function grassroots venues had in his initial steps.

"I would not have achieved what I am doing today if it weren't for all the performances I played around the region, and elsewhere, 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 – roughly 16% of the total UK scene.

Over the past year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its efforts to keep the scene afloat, by including a modest fee to their ticket prices, which goes to help smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also joined in, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help numerous local spots across the UK.

The money supported locations that were facing potential shutdown due to issues caused by water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and neighbor objections.

Some locations received financial assistance in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted artists and audiences.

"The notion that money from shows in big venues helps the local stages, where it begins for performers like me, is just sensible," the star has stated.

The musician is not the first artist to contribute his honor winnings to good deeds.

In Pulp earned the award in the year 1996 for their album Different Class, frontman Cocker declared that the band would donate their cash to the charity War Child.

That year, musician Ms Dynamite shared her prize between several organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"I also contributed a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was growing up and they required new equipment," Ms Dynamite shared with outlets.

In recent years, they gave their prize money to the local youth club that developed their group, as well as other independent music bodies.

And 1994 winners M People gave their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the illness.

"Receiving the award was sufficient," said artist Heather Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the cake. So our success impacted another person's life."

In the past week, the trust announced it had protected a couple of grassroots venues in the South East, by transferring them to public stewardship.

The first in the city and the second in the city were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is backed by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the buildings.