Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize cash to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the United Kingdom's small live music spots.
He was presented with the prize on 16 October as his latest record People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the last 12 months.
The musician has opted to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part grassroots venues fulfilled in his early career.
"I couldn't be pursuing my current career if it weren't for all the shows I did around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," stated Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these venues have ceased operations – about 16% of the total UK scene.
In the last year, top acts including Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all supported the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by applying a modest fee to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
He also took part, generating more than £100,000 on his live tour to help numerous grassroots venues across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds helped venues that were confronting potential shutdown due to difficulties caused by flooding, blazes and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and noise complaints.
Other venues were granted funding support in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and fans.
"The notion that money from performances in large arenas backs the independent spots, where it all starts for artists like me, is just common sense," Fender has stated.
The musician is far from the only musician to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
In the band received the award in the year 1996 for their release their work, vocalist Cocker announced that the band would donate their cash to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, musician she split her bounty between several charities, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with a publication.
Previously, they gave their prize money to the community center that nurtured their band, as well as other grassroots music organisations.
And winners that year the group contributed their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the disease.
"Winning was sufficient," stated singer the singer. "The prize was the bonus but we didn't need the extra, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted another person's life."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had saved a couple of local spots in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
The Joiners in the city and the second in that location were purchased under the public acquisition initiative, which is funded by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the buildings.
