🔗 Share this article

The artist has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the United Kingdom's grassroots live music spots.

The star was presented with the prize on 16 October as his new release People Watching was named the top album of the previous year.

Fender has decided to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the essential function local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.

"I would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the gigs I played around the area, and further afield, when I was beginning," remarked the artist. "These venues are legendary, but they are facing challenges."

From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these venues have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.

Over the past year, well-known musicians including the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the MVT in its attempts to support the industry, by adding a modest fee to their ticket prices, which benefits smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also participated, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist numerous small stages across Britain.

The donation helped locations that were facing imminent closure due to issues arising from flooding, blazes and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and neighbor objections.

Some locations received funding support in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that helped artists and fans.

"The idea that money from performances in major spaces backs the independent spots, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just common sense," Fender has commented.

He is not the first artist to donate his award winnings to good deeds.

Back when Pulp earned the prize in the mid-90s for their release Different Class, frontman the singer stated that the band would give their cash to the organization War Child.

In 2002, musician she split her bounty among a few good causes, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"Additionally, I contributed a grand to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," she told the media.

Two years ago, the band contributed their funds to the community center that developed their group, alongside other grassroots music organisations.

Also 1994 winners the group gave their prize to a charity for MS after a friend was identified with the illness.

"Receiving the award was ample," stated vocalist Small. "The money was the bonus but we could do without the extra, because we had the honor. So our success touched the lives of others."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected several small stages in that region, by placing them under local control.

The Joiners in Southampton and The Croft in the city were acquired under the public acquisition initiative, which is backed by a national body and music fans who buy "shares" in the buildings.