23 Grassroots Music 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:
The Underground, Bradford
The Rose Hill, Brighton
The Six Six Bar, Cambridge
Fuel Rock Club, Cardiff
CWRW, Carmarthen
The Lighthouse, Deal
Docks Academy, Grimsby
The Holroyd, Guildford
The Old Abbey Taphouse, Hulme
The Smokehouse, Ipswich
2 Funky Music Cafe, Leicester
Melodic Bar, Liverpool
Loki, Brixton
The Dublin Castle, Camden
Rebellion, Manchester
The Middlesbrough Empire, Middlesbrough
The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Little Buildings, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Escape Venue, Northampton
Rocknrollas, Paisley
Chinnerys, Southend on Sea
Ku Stockton, Stockton
The Crescent Community Venue, York
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.
