Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the MVT, which functions to preserve the Britain's grassroots concert spaces.
He was given the cheque on 16 October as his latest record People Watching was declared the top album of the past year.
The musician has opted to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function grassroots venues fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing my current career if it hadn't been for all the shows I did around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," stated Sam Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these venues have shut down – about one-sixth of the total UK scene.
In the last year, major artists such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by applying a modest fee to their ticket costs, which goes to help local stages.
Fender also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight grassroots venues across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation assisted locations that were facing possible closure due to difficulties arising from flooding, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, conflicts and neighbor objections.
Other venues were granted funding support in improving amenities and gear that helped performers and audiences.
"The notion that money from performances in large arenas supports the independent spots, where it begins for artists like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has commented.
He is far from the only musician to donate his Mercury Prize prize money to good deeds.
When they won the prize in 1996 for their album their work, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the act would donate their winnings to the non-profit War Child.
That year, rapper and singer she divided her award among several good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I donated a £1,000 to the center, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to the media.
Previously, Ezra Collective donated their prize money to the community center that developed their act, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.
And 1994 winners they gave their award to a MS organization after a close contact was identified with the illness.
"The victory was quite enough," stated vocalist Small. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning touched the lives of others."
In the past week, the trust revealed it had saved two small stages in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
The Joiners in that area and the second in the city were bought under the community ownership program, which is supported by Arts Council England and enthusiasts who purchase "shares" in the buildings.
