23 GRASSROOTS MUSIC VENUES AWARDED CHARITY GRANTS IN FOURTH Round61 venues
London
, May 24th 2023. 23 Grassroots lMusic Venues have received grants from the charity Music Venue Trust (MVT), as part of a fourth round of recipients for its major new funding initiative which provides grants of up to £5,000 for UK Grassroots Music Venues.
The Pipeline Investment Fund, established in 2022, is primarily funded by ticket sales of MVT’s recent ‘Revive Live’ programme of gigs around the UK, a hugely successful partnership with The National Lottery. To date £165,000 worth of grants have been awarded to 38 Grassroots Music Venues since December. This fourth round of payments sees a total sum of £97,516.97 awarded to a further 23 GMVs across the country.
Small scale grant applications (up to £5,000) were invited from UK based Grassroots Music Venues to support two key areas of work:
● Small scale capital projects; including lights, sound, access, ventilation and minor building alterations
● Staff Training; workforce diversification, succession planning, skills development and strengthening local community ties.
The grants were awarded for a range of requirements including sound and lighting equipment, staff training, soundproofing, air conditioning, repairs and venue improvements, accessibility and seating
The full list of new recipient venues are:
Venue | City/Town | Reason for grant |
The Underground | Bradford | Mixture of mixing desk, backline and production equipment |
The Rose Hill | Brighton | Staff training |
The Six Six Bar | Cambridge | Sound proofing |
Fuel Rock Club | Cardiff | Air conditioning |
CWRW | Carmarthen | Soundproofing, new production and backline equipment |
The Lighthouse | Deal, Kent | Variety of sound equipment including a new sound desk |
Docks Academy | Grimsby | Variety of production equipment |
The Holroyd | Guildford | Backline, lighting, DJ Mixer and new mics to improve production in venue |
The Old Abbey Taphouse | Hulme, Manchester | Urgent repairs and improvement |
The Smokehouse | Ipswich | New sound desk |
2 Funky Music Cafe | Leicester | Purchase of a new sound desk to replace a 7 year old analogue desk |
Melodic Bar | Liverpool | Staging, training and seating |
Loki | London (Brixton) | Purchase of speakers as part of a larger project to buy a new sound system for venue |
The Dublin Castle | London (Camden) | Venue maintenance |
Rebellion | Manchester | New lighting for production and training for staff |
The Middlesbrough Empire | Middlesbrough | Lighting & production equipment |
The Lubber Fiend | Newcastle Upon Tyne | Improve stage equipment |
Little Buildings | Newcastle Upon Tyne | New sound desk to enable recording of live shows |
Escape Venue | Northampton | Safe flooring |
Rocknrollas | Paisley | To build an accessible ramp into the premises to increase accessibility |
Chinnerys | Southend on Sea | Various production improvements |
Ku Stockton | Stockton | Purchase of new monitors to replace 20 year old system |
The Crescent Community Venue | York | New seating |
Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust said:“This fourth round of the Pipeline Investment Fund once again demonstrates how much difference small amounts of money, wisely invested, can make for Grassroots Music Venues. With grassroots music venues facing extraordinary challenges right now, Music Venue Trust is determined to keep pressing the music industry and government to support this fund and ensure music communities right across the country can continue to access the very best in live music.”
The fund prioritises support for organisations who may have been excluded from other available funding and was open to all venue operators and organisations that meet any of the three definitions of a Grassroots Music Space, which can be found here.
Music Venue Trust is still actively seeking further donations, particularly from the wider music industry, to maintain and expand the Pipeline Investment Fund and make it a permanent source of support for Grassroots Music Venues. Please contact ozlem@musicvenuetrust.com for details of how this work can be supported.
In January, Music Venue Trust released their 2022 Annual Report, which was launched at a reception for MPs at The House of Commons. The report details the immense contribution of Grassroots Music Venues to the UK economy, and the current threat they face as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and ongoing post-covid recovery.
MVT is calling on the government to review the VAT on ticket sales that is currently limiting profitability and crushing a sector responsible for nurturing new, upcoming talent in the UK – talent that goes on to define British culture and create huge profit for the industry.
The report also outlines plans to ensure all new arenas opening in the UK contribute to the wider music eco-system by investing a percentage of every ticket sale into Grassroots Venues. As, without the work of GMVs to nurture new talent, there will be no big artists to fill these venues in the coming years. Taking matters into their own hands, last month Enter Shikari announced that £1 from every ticket sold for their first ever arena tour would go to MVT to support the Pipeline Investment Fund.
