Brit Award Winners Myles Smith, Last Dinner Party and Ezra Collective have called for action from the government and industry to protect grass roots live music venues and music programmes for young people, during speeches at the ceremony on Saturday.
“I was a kid raised by a single mum on free school meals in a state school that only had instruments because of government-backed schemes,” Smith explained “And I’m somehow here, a four time BRIT nominee, a graduate from a Russell Group university and having the biggest hit single of 2024.”
Smith called for support for the grassroots of music from the UK government, arguing that “We have to protect the foundations,” asking for programs not to be cut: “How many more venues need to close, how many music programs need to be cut before we realise that we can’t just celebrate success, we have to protect the foundations that make it.”
“If British music is one of the most powerful exports we have, why have you treated it like an after thought for so many years?”
He also questioned why big venues are not supporting smaller venues that are the platform for emerging artists. Asking “if artists selling out your arenas and your stadiums started in grassroots venues, what are you doing to keep them alive?”
The Music Venue Trust (MVT) said that venues are closing at a lower rate, with 46 settings shutting doors in 2024, when compared to 2023 – the worst year in decades for the sector with 125 venues closing.
In 2024, 40 venues are also no longer operating as grass roots music spaces.
He urged labels to invest in artists longevity telling labels: “moments fade but careers last forever.”
Georgia Davies of The Last Dinner Party who scooped the award for Best New Artist offered: “We wouldn’t be a band, and a lot of the artists here would not be bands either, without the U.K.’s incredible independent venues, and they are the lifeblood of the music industry and they are dying. “
Last year, The Music Venue Trust (MVT) proposed a voluntary levy on stadium and arena tickets to help grassroots music venues. The levy would be a small contribution to the cost of each ticket, which would go towards supporting the sector. Davies made reference to this:
“And if venues like this, like The O2, like arenas, stadiums across this country contributed even a tiny bit toward these independent venues, then we would not be losing them at this alarming rate. We wouldn’t be here without them. None of this would be happening without them. So, I want to say to those artists who are playing independent venues all over the country tonight — keep going because that’s the best kind of art there is. In a time when art is under threat, that is the most important thing to keep supporting.”
A survey of the 810 members of the Music Venues Alliance (MVA), who employ over 30,000 people throughout the GMV community, found that they staged over 162,000 live music events comprising almost 1.5m individual artist performances given to a total audience of just under 20 million. The total direct value to the UK economy from these events was £526m. However, on average GMV’s, 33% of which are now registered as not-for profit entities – a 29% increase in not-for-profit registration since 2023 – operated on a profit margin of just 0.48% with 43.8% of them reporting a loss in the last 12 months. This means that the sector as a whole effectively subsidised live music activity to the tune of £162m.
This comes in sharp contrast to the huge recent profit reports from Live Nation of around $2 billion dollars, while Spotify generated €15.6 billion revenue in 2024.
So, whilst venues and the industry also need to adapt to make music more accessible, to attract younger audiences and try different techniques to grow, such matinee shows, and performances in different spaces.
The question has to be if the government and industry do not invest in the grassroots of venues, rehearsal spaces, youth club and (good)music programs for young people, and in developing the careers of new artists, where will the stars of the future come from? How will acts of the future have longevity and a career?
Femi Koleoso of Group of the year award winners Ezra Collective argued that giving a young person a trumpet can help to fix “so many of the problems that face greater society in the UK”, when they collected their award.
“I’ll bang this drum a bunch of times and I’ll continue to do so until the entire country gets it”,
“This moment right here is because of the great youth clubs, and the great teachers and the great schools that support young people playing music.” He added with Ezra Collective having been nurtured by youth clubs.
He also extolled the power of music lessons and music as a source of inspiration and hope.
“The reason we continue to bang this drum is because so many of the problems that face greater society in the UK, where we’re unsure of how to fix it, but the solution lies with giving a young person a trumpet, the solution lies in giving a young person a saxophone.”
“Because when you do that, you give them a dream, an aspiration and a goal.”
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Myles Smith accepts the award for Rising Stars at The BRIT Awards 2025 at The O2 Arena on March 01, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)
