The musician gives twenty-five thousand pounds award winnings to small concert halls

The artist has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the MVT, which operates to protect the Britain's independent concert spaces.

The star was given the cheque on mid-October as his latest record the album was declared the best record of the past year.

The musician has decided to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the vital role small stages had in his initial steps.

"I personally couldn't be pursuing my current career if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the area, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Sam Fender. "These venues are renowned, but they are facing challenges."

From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these venues have permanently closed – approximately one-sixth of the total UK scene.

Recently, top acts including the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to support the industry, by adding a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.

Fender also joined in, raising in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight small stages across the UK.

The donation supported locations that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges caused by flooding, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, conflicts and neighbor objections.

Other venues were granted financial assistance in modernizing amenities and gear that positively impacted musicians and audiences.

"The notion that money from concerts in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," the star has stated.

The musician is not the first artist to donate his award funds to good deeds.

Back when Pulp won the award in 1996 for their record Different Class, frontman Cocker announced that the act would donate their cash to the non-profit War Child.

That year, rapper and singer the artist divided her prize across a few good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"And I gave a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," she shared with a publication.

In recent years, they gave their winnings to the community center that developed their band, as well as other independent music bodies.

Additionally winners that year M People contributed their award to a MS organization after a acquaintance was found to have the condition.

"Winning was quite enough," remarked artist Small. "The prize was the extra but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched somebody else's life."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had saved a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by placing them under local control.

The first in the city and the other in that location were acquired under the public acquisition initiative, which is funded by a national body and music fans who purchase "shares" in the buildings.