Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize prize money to the MVT, which works to preserve the UK's independent concert spaces.
The star was given the award on 16 October as his latest record the album was declared the top album of the previous year.
He has chosen to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages had in his beginning days.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing this success if it hadn't been for all the performances I played around the North East, and further afield, when I was starting out," remarked Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these venues have permanently closed – approximately 16% of the total UK scene.
Recently, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a modest fee to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
Fender also joined in, generating more than £100,000 on his live tour to assist numerous local spots across the UK.
These funds assisted venues that were facing imminent closure due to issues arising from flooding, fires and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and neighbor objections.
Other venues received monetary aid in upgrading amenities and gear that helped performers and audiences.
"The notion that revenue from shows in big venues helps the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has commented.
The musician is far from the only musician to donate his Mercury Prize funds to charitable organizations.
In they won the prize in 1996 for their record their work, lead singer Jarvis Cocker declared that the group would contribute their cash to the charity the charity.
In 2002, rapper and singer she divided her prize across a few good causes, such as the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"Additionally, I gave a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they required new equipment," the artist told a publication.
Previously, the band gave their prize money to the community center that nurtured their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.
Also winners that year the group contributed their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was identified with the disease.
"Receiving the award was quite enough," said artist the singer. "The prize was the extra but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning touched another person's life."
Recently, the trust announced it had protected several local spots in south-east England, by bringing them into local control.
The first in the city and the other in the city were purchased under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by a national body and supporters who purchase "ownership units" in the venues.
