🔗 Share this article

The artist has given the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize winnings to the trust for venues, which functions to protect the United Kingdom's independent live music spots.

The star was given the prize on mid-October as his new release his work was declared the top album of the past year.

Fender has chosen to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in appreciation of the essential function small stages fulfilled in his early career.

"I couldn't be pursuing my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," said Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are in difficulty."

From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

Over the past year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their admission fees, which goes to help independent venues.

Sam Fender also participated, collecting over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.

These funds assisted spaces that were dealing with possible closure due to challenges arising from water damage, blazes and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.

Other venues obtained monetary aid in upgrading amenities and gear that directly benefitted musicians and concertgoers.

"The idea that money from concerts in major spaces backs the local stages, where it begins for performers like me, is just sensible," the star has said.

The musician is not the first artist to give his award prize money to good deeds.

In the band earned the prize in 1996 for their release their work, vocalist Jarvis Cocker announced that the group would donate their prize money to the charity the charity.

That year, artist she shared her prize between a few organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"And I donated a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to the media.

Two years ago, the band gave their funds to the community center that supported their group, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.

Also the 1994 recipients the group contributed their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was identified with the condition.

"The victory was ample," remarked vocalist the singer. "The prize was the cherry on top but we could do without the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our success touched somebody else's life."

Recently, the Music Venues Trust announced it had saved several small stages in the South East, by bringing them into public stewardship.

The Joiners in that area and The Croft in the city were acquired under the public acquisition program, which is backed by a national body and enthusiasts who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.