The musician donates twenty-five thousand pounds Mercury Prize to independent live spaces

Sam Fender receiving Mercury Prize in the North East
He was awarded the prestigious award in October in the North East

The artist has given the complete sum of his twenty-five thousand pound award prize money to the MVT, which works to save the UK's independent music venues.

The star was given the prize on mid-October as his new release People Watching was declared the best record of the past year.

The musician has opted to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues fulfilled in his early career.

"I personally would not have achieved this success if it weren't for all the shows I did around the region, and beyond, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are struggling."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – approximately one-sixth of the entire UK sector.

Over the past year, top acts including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the MVT in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which goes to help smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also joined in, generating more than £100,000 on his live tour to help numerous small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.

The donation assisted locations that were facing imminent closure due to issues caused by flooding, blazes and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.

Additional spaces received financial assistance in improving infrastructure and gear that positively impacted musicians and concertgoers.

"The idea that money from concerts in major spaces supports the independent spots, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.

The band Pulp on stage
They are among the artists who contributed their honor prize money to good causes

He is far from the only musician to donate his honor funds to worthy causes.

In they earned the prize in the year 1996 for their album the album, frontman Cocker declared that the act would donate their cash to the organization War Child.

That year, artist Ms Dynamite split her bounty among several good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"Additionally, I gave a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to a publication.

Previously, the band donated their prize money to the local youth club that supported their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.

And winners that year M People gave their winnings to a charity for MS after a close contact was identified with the condition.

"The victory was ample," stated artist Heather Small. "The prize was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected another person's life."

Recently, the trust announced it had protected two local spots in the South East, by placing them under local control.

The Joiners in the city and The Croft in that location were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is backed by the arts council and enthusiasts who purchase "ownership units" in the venues.

Darlene Forbes
Darlene Forbes

Maya Chen is a tech journalist and innovation strategist with over a decade of experience covering Canada's digital transformation and startup landscape.