🔗 Share this article Sam Fender gives £25,000 cash award to independent music venues The musician won the Mercury Prize recently in the North East The star has given the complete sum of his twenty-five thousand pound honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the Britain's independent live music spots. The star was given the cheque on 16 October as his new release his work was declared the top album of the previous year. The musician has decided to hand the money over to the trust, in recognition of the essential function local spots had in his beginning days. "I would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the performances I did around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are facing challenges." From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – approximately one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK. Recently, major artists including the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which goes to help smaller concert halls. He also took part, raising over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help 38 small stages across Britain. These funds supported venues that were dealing with possible closure due to issues stemming from floods, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues. Additional spaces received monetary aid in improving infrastructure and gear that helped performers and audiences. "The notion that funds from concerts in major spaces supports the local stages, where it begins for performers like me, is just sensible," Fender has said. They are among the artists who contributed their Mercury Prize winnings to charity He is among several artists to give his Mercury Prize prize money to charitable organizations. In the band earned the prize in the mid-90s for their album Different Class, frontman Cocker stated that the act would give their winnings to the charity War Child. In 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite divided her award across multiple good causes, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization. "Additionally, I contributed a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," she explained to a publication. In recent years, they donated their winnings to the community center that nurtured their group, alongside other independent music bodies. Additionally the 1994 recipients they donated their winnings to a charity for MS after a friend was diagnosed the condition. "Receiving the award was quite enough," stated artist the singer. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the extra, because we had the honor. So our success affected the lives of others." Last week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had rescued two local spots in that region, by placing them under local control. The first in that area and The Croft in that location were acquired under the public acquisition scheme, which is funded by a national body and enthusiasts who buy "stakes" in the properties.