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The star has donated the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the UK's independent live music spots.

Fender was presented with the cheque on mid-October as his third album the album was named the best record of the past year.

Fender has decided to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the crucial part small stages had in his early career.

"I personally would not have achieved what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I did around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Sam Fender. "These venues are iconic, but they are struggling."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – roughly one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.

In the last year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their ticket prices, which supports independent venues.

Fender also joined in, raising over £100k on his live tour to support numerous grassroots venues across Britain.

These funds supported locations that were confronting imminent closure due to difficulties stemming from flooding, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, conflicts and sound issues.

Additional spaces obtained financial assistance in modernizing infrastructure and gear that positively impacted artists and audiences.

"The idea that funds from performances in big venues supports the local stages, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just common sense," Fender has commented.

He is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.

Back when Pulp won the trophy in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, vocalist Jarvis Cocker stated that the band would donate their winnings to the non-profit War Child.

That year, musician the artist divided her bounty among several organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"And I contributed a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked new equipment," Ms Dynamite told the media.

In recent years, the band gave their funds to the local youth club that nurtured their act, alongside other grassroots music organisations.

And the 1994 recipients the group gave their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was identified with the illness.

"The victory was sufficient," remarked artist Small. "The prize was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the cake. So our success affected somebody else's life."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had rescued two grassroots venues in that region, by bringing them into public stewardship.

The first in the city and the second in that location were acquired under the public acquisition program, which is supported by Arts Council England and music fans who acquire "shares" in the properties.