The artist contributes £25,000 award winnings to independent music venues

Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound award cash to the MVT, which works to save the UK's grassroots concert spaces.

The star was given the cheque on October 16 as his third album his work was declared the best record of the past year.

He has decided to give the cash to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the vital role small stages played in his initial steps.

"I couldn't be pursuing this success if it wasn't for all the gigs I did around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are struggling."

From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these venues have permanently closed – approximately one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.

In the last year, top acts like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by applying a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.

He also joined in, generating more than £100,000 on his recent tour to support numerous grassroots venues across the UK.

The donation supported venues that were confronting potential shutdown due to challenges caused by water damage, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.

Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in improving facilities and technical equipment that positively impacted musicians and concertgoers.

"The idea that revenue from performances in big venues helps the local stages, where it begins for artists like me, is just sensible," Fender has commented.

The musician is among several artists to contribute his award winnings to good deeds.

In they earned the prize in the year 1996 for their record Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker declared that the group would contribute their prize money to the charity War Child.

In 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite shared her bounty between a few good causes, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.

"I also donated a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," she shared with the media.

Two years ago, they gave their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their group, as well as other grassroots music organisations.

Also winners that year the group contributed their prize to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was found to have the illness.

"Receiving the award was sufficient," said singer the singer. "The cash was the bonus but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."

Recently, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected several local spots in south-east England, by transferring them to public stewardship.

The Joiners in the city and the second in that location were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by a national body and supporters who purchase "stakes" in the venues.