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Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound honor prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to save the UK's small live music spots.

He was given the prize on October 16 as his latest record his work was named the top album of the previous year.

The musician has opted to donate the funds to the trust, in appreciation of the vital role small stages had in his initial steps.

"As an artist couldn't be pursuing this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I did around the area, and beyond, when I was just getting going," stated Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."

From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.

Over the past year, major artists like the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by applying a small levy to their ticket costs, which supports local stages.

Fender also took part, generating more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight local spots across the UK.

These funds supported locations that were facing possible closure due to difficulties arising from floods, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and neighbor objections.

Some locations obtained funding support in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted artists and concertgoers.

"The concept that money from concerts in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it begins for performers like me, is just common sense," Fender has said.

He is not the first artist to give his honor prize money to good deeds.

In the band earned the award in the year 1996 for their release Different Class, vocalist Cocker announced that the band would contribute their prize money to the non-profit War Child.

In 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite shared her bounty between several charities, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"Additionally, I gave a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they needed new equipment," she explained to the media.

Previously, the band contributed their funds to the community center that supported their band, in addition to other independent music bodies.

Additionally winners that year M People donated their prize to a MS organization after a acquaintance was found to have the illness.

"The victory was sufficient," remarked artist Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the cake. So our success affected another person's life."

Last week, the MVT revealed it had saved a couple of grassroots venues in the South East, by bringing them into local control.

The first in the city and The Croft in Bristol were acquired under the public acquisition program, which is supported by the arts council and supporters who acquire "ownership units" in the buildings.