Sam Fender donates his £25k prize award winnings to small live spaces
The artist has donated the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize cash to the trust for venues, which operates to protect the Britain's grassroots music venues.
He was presented with the award on mid-October as his latest record the album was named the best record of the previous year.
Fender has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the crucial part local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"I personally would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the performances I did around the area, and further afield, when I was starting out," remarked the artist. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – about one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Recently, major artists such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
Sam Fender also took part, collecting more than £100,000 on his recent tour to support 38 grassroots venues across the UK.
These funds assisted spaces that were confronting potential shutdown due to challenges caused by floods, blazes and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, conflicts and sound issues.
Additional spaces were granted monetary aid in improving infrastructure and gear that directly benefitted musicians and concertgoers.
"The concept that money from concerts in big venues helps the smaller venues, where it begins for artists like me, is just common sense," the star has commented.
He is not the first artist to donate his award funds to good deeds.
When they earned the prize in the year 1996 for their record their work, vocalist Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would donate their prize money to the organization War Child.
That year, rapper and singer she shared her prize between several charities, like the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I donated a grand to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," she told a publication.
Two years ago, they contributed their prize money to the local youth club that developed their band, as well as other local music groups.
Additionally 1994 winners M People contributed their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the illness.
"The victory was ample," stated vocalist Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the cake. So our victory impacted somebody else's life."
Recently, the trust announced it had saved several grassroots venues in that region, by placing them under local control.
The Joiners in the city and the second in the city were bought under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is funded by the arts council and music fans who acquire "ownership units" in the venues.