🔗 Share this article

Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to save the United Kingdom's small concert spaces.

He was given the award on October 16 as his latest record the album was chosen as the top album of the previous year.

The musician has decided to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues played in his beginning days.

"I personally would not have achieved my current career if it wasn't for all the shows I performed around the region, and further afield, when I was starting out," remarked Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are facing challenges."

Beginning in 2023, at least 150 of these locations have ceased operations – about 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

Recently, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its efforts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a modest fee to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.

Fender also joined in, raising over £100k on his live tour to assist numerous grassroots venues across the UK.

The money helped locations that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as licensing issues, court cases and neighbor objections.

Additional spaces received financial assistance in modernizing infrastructure and gear that helped musicians and audiences.

"The notion that revenue from concerts in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.

Fender is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.

Back when Pulp received the prize in the year 1996 for their album their work, frontman Cocker stated that the group would donate their winnings to the organization War Child.

During 2002, artist the artist shared her prize among a few charities, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"And I donated a grand to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked updated gear," the artist explained to a publication.

Previously, the band contributed their winnings to the local youth club that nurtured their group, alongside other independent music bodies.

And winners that year they gave their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the disease.

"Winning was ample," said singer Heather Small. "The cash was the bonus but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning impacted another person's life."

Last week, the MVT announced it had saved a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to public stewardship.

One venue in that area and the other in that location were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by the arts council and supporters who acquire "stakes" in the venues.