Sir Tom Jones to perform in Cambridge for The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour
The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust Announce Ground-Breaking Partnership to Help Revive Grassroots Live Music
£1m initiative will support over 300 live performances in
The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour
Sir Tom Jones, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, Mahalia and James Arthur among artists to perform special one-off shows
The National Lottery has partnered with leading UK charity Music Venue Trust in a unique initiative to help revive the UK’s grassroots live music sector.
In an unprecedented collaboration, The National Lottery – one of the biggest funders of culture in the UK – will contribute £1M to directly underwrite the touring and production costs of over 300 live performances this summer, enabling the grassroots live music industry to start promoting shows again in the knowledge that the upfront costs associated with touring are covered.
The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour will run throughout the summer and will see a diverse range of headline artists including Olivia Dean, Twin Atlantic, The Magic Gang and The Futureheads perform at hundreds of grassroots music venues throughout the country. More than 20 tours will be taking place, once venues are able to open, in line with government guidance, with National Lottery players having a chance to gain access to every show for free.
Special one-off shows by Sir Tom Jones, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, Mahalia, James Arthur, Frank Turner, Sam Fender and Fontaines D.C. will also take place at
grassroots music venues to support the initiative and celebrate the return of live music.
Sir Tom Jones said: “Musicians can record in their bedrooms, but they can’t learn to perform in public without a place to play. Without that, there is no way you can communicate directly to people. It’ll be tough to hone your skills and you’ll never have the thrill of feeling their feedback. Without a grassroots music venue, the neighbourhood won’t have a place where people can come together to discover and support a new talent.
“So support your local pub, club, gym or church or wherever someone has the guts to bring in some entertainment, it makes all the difference both to budding artists and the community. I’m delighted to be able to perform a special show as part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour and to be celebrating the return of live music”
Up to 30,000 tickets – or around half the capacity of these shows – will be gifted to National Lottery players, giving music fans the opportunity to get back to live gigs as soon as possible.
Every National Lottery ticket-holder will be invited to bring a “plus one” for free – all they need to do to qualify for this offer is to show a National Lottery ticket or Scratchcard purchased in-store or online/via the National Lottery app when they attend the gig
Tickets for The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour go on sale on Monday 12 July from 8pm.
Nigel Railton, Chief Executive of National Lottery operator Camelot, said:
“The National Lottery is very excited to be working with Music Venue Trust in what we believe is a truly ground-breaking initiative. The last year has been incredibly challenging for many industries and we hope The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour will help kick start the return of grassroots live music. With
every ticket having a built in plus-one, we hope The National Lottery can bring friends back together this summer to once again share the experiences we’ve all missed, while thanking players for the amazing things they make happen just by buying a ticket.”
Mark Dayvd, CEO of Music Venue Trust said, “It’s so important to get artists and crew back out and working, to get our grassroots music venues back up and running, and to get friends, families and communities back together enjoying live music.
“Grassroots music venues play a crucial role in the development of British music, nurturing local talent, providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and their performance skills. These venues also play a vital role in the cultural and economic vibrancy of any village, town or city. The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour is a fantastic initiative which will kickstart the return of great events across the country. We can’t wait to get started!”
Culture Minister, Caroline Dinenage said: “It’s been a challenging period for our brilliant grassroots music venues which is why we’ve provided more than £200 million to over 800 music organisations from our unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund. As we continue to work towards live events being fully reopened from July 19th, I’m pleased that this collaboration will help get many artists back playing live at local venues across the country.”
Jo Whiley, Radio DJ, Broadcaster and Ambassador for The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour, said: “We have fantastic venues all over the country that provide a stage for an amazing range of musicians, and all have been impacted by the pandemic. The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour is an amazing opportunity to showcase the incredible artists and support these grassroot music venues that are so integral to our cultural fabric.
“I’m sure many people have missed the experience of live music over the course of the lockdown, myself included. I can’t wait to go to see these amazing musicians on stage again!“
Over the last 14 months grassroots music venues have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic – 83% of venues have faced closure during this period and are emerging from lockdown burdened with a collective debt of £45m.*
A recently conducted LIVE survey of music fans shows that the majority are now ready to return to live music, with over 75% ready to attend shows immediately. The results of this survey indicate that enthusiasm for live music has been intensified by the crisis, with one third of gig-goers say they will attend shows more frequently than they did previously.
The money for this initiative comes from a National Lottery promotional fund. It is not being funded by money allocated for National Lottery Good Causes or by Camelot.
For more information on The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour, please visit:
About The National Lottery:
- Camelot UK Lotteries Limited is the licensed operator of The National Lottery® and is committed to raising money for National Lottery Good Causes designated by Parliament. Camelot is not responsible for distributing or awarding these funds.
- The National Lottery generates an average of £36 million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. To date, over £43 billion has now been raised and more than
- 635,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 225 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
- The National Lottery has awarded over £80 billion in prizes to date and created more than 6,100 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch in 1994.
- For further information on Camelot, The National Lottery and its games, please visit: www.camelotgroup.co.uk and www.national-lottery.co.uk
- Players of all National Lottery games must be aged 18 or over.
About Music Venue Trust:
- Music Venue Trustis a registered charity, created in January 2014 to protect, secure and improve the UK live music network by securing the long-term future of iconic grassroots music venues such as Hull Adelphi, Exeter Cavern, Southampton Joiners, The 100 Club, Band on the Wall, Tunbridge Wells Forum etc. These venues have played a crucial role in the development of British music over the last 40 years, nurturing local talent, providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and their performance skills.
- We work to gain recognition of the essential role these venues fulfil, not only for artist development but also for the cultural and music industries, the economy and local communities. We aim to preserve and improve venues, making them more efficient and improving the experience for performers and audiences. Long-term we plan to acquire the freeholds of as many of these vital venues as possible.
- Since the pandemic forced grassroot music venues to close their doors early in 2020, Music Venue Trust, via its #saveourvenues campaign, has helped unlock over £80m of funding from donations and government initiatives, which has seen over 500 venues secure their immediate futures.
- Music Venue Trust is a Charity registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, registration no: 1159846.
#Revivelive
The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour – All Artist Quotes
Standalone shows
Sir Tom Jones
Musicians can record in their bedrooms, but they can’t learn to perform in public without a place to play. Without that, there is no way you can communicate directly to people. It’ll be tough to hone your skills and you’ll never have the thrill of feeling their feedback. Without a grassroots music venue, the neighbourhood won’t have a place where people can come together to discover and support a new talent. So support your local pub, club, gym or church or wherever someone has the guts to bring in some entertainment, it makes all the difference both to budding artists and the community. I’m delighted to be able to perform a special show as part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour and to be celebrating the return of live music.
Mahalia
I’m proud to be part of the movement to Revive Live with Music Venue Trust and the National Lottery. Looking forward to being on stage again! <3 <3 <3
James Arthur
Grassroots Music Venues aren’t just spaces where musicians start their careers, they are also the places where people can fall in love with music, with artists, for the first time. They inspire people to want to create music, and to follow their passion for music and creativity. We’ve all missed the thrill of live music so much during this crisis, and I can’t wait to be part of this initiative to Revive Live music with The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust.
Frank Turner
The last year has been incredibly difficult for everyone, but in particular, the live music industry has been completely shuttered. That’s been understandable, but it’s hard to express how exciting it is to be on the verge of bringing it back as part of the National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour. It’s an entire culture that revolves around bringing people together, closing up the gaps, showing us that we can be more than the sum of our parts. The whole experience, being at a show, in the crowd, in the wings or on the stage, is something we’ve all missed so very much, and I cannot wait to get back to it. I also can’t promise I won’t shed a tear. Bring it on.
Fontaines DC
Venues such as Roadmender are the way bands make a name for themselves. If you don’t gig then you don’t really exist, a record is a photograph, easily faked. It’s only when you see a band live that you know who they really are- if they’re the real deal or if they’re just a bunch of phonies. And it’s not at the stage when you’re playing arenas that this can be ascertained – we all know that there’s plenty of bands selling out arenas that don’t have what they sell on the tin.
So it’s down to those small gigs to know what’s really up. There’s no lightshow or expensive PA to hide behind, there’s just music and the people attending, who will either adore you or curse your name. Or even worse, they could ‘take you or leave you’.
We’re doing this show as part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour to reconnect with the real stuff, and make sure that we’re still a half decent band. And God knows we all need a gig.
Touring artists
AK Patterson
We’re really excited to be part of The National Lottery Revive Live Tour. Grassroots music venues are the bedrock of the music industry. For up and coming artists, they give you an unparalleled opportunity to go out there, settle your stage fright and craft your songs across the country. We have been playing in grassroots venues from the age of 15, and always get a buzz from it. These intimate spaces are magic and really encourage you to get face to face with your audience, and craft your performance. In such a strange time, we must support these venues and each other so let’s get out there and pump some musical life back into the streets. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.
Bob Vylan
We can’t wait to get out and finally make this tour happen. This tour is for everybody that’s been waiting patiently to hear our album ‘We Live Here’ live. The venues we’re playing have been chosen specifically because they serve the community that they are part of. They encourage local music to thrive and grow and without grassroots music venues we would have struggled to get our foot in the door when it came to playing live shows early on in our career.
Grandma’s House
“We are beyond excited to be part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour and to get back to playing live shows! Grassroots venues are one of the most important part of the music community, as they give small bands the chance to experience playing in front of people. It creates a close community of music lovers which is especially the case in Bristol where we’re from. We’ve had the opportunity to play a lot of amazing independent venues and it’s always been an incredible experience and we can’t wait to get back to playing these all over the country. The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour is helping us and other bands get back out there and is additionally helping out gig goers with tickets, which we think is incredible especially as everyone’s been without live music for so long!”
Olivia Dean
I am so excited to be involved in The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour. I have missed playing live so much this past year. Grassroots venues are so important to artists like me, as well as the communities that surround them. I cannot wait to get back on stage with the band, crew and venue staff and perform for real life audiences again!
Luna Bay
We cannot wait to get back out there and play live to an audience again! It’s been over a year since we’ve been in a venue performing live music and to have the chance to help support grassroots music venues makes this tour even more special. It is a reminder of how important these places are for up and coming bands, from starting out, earning their stripes and making their mark in the music industry!
Night Flight
“As a band, we would be unable to grow without grassroots venues, they are so fundamentally important to all musicians who take an alternative path. We have been privileged enough to play at many grassroots venues in London and major cities including The Waiting Room, Paper Dress Vintage, The Finsbury and more, so we felt it was really important to play other towns and cities across the UK who don’t get the same access to live music. Fans come from all over the country, not just London or Manchester so we are massively behind this campaign”
Pip Blom
We really love playing independent venues. The atmosphere and character that you notice straight away when you enter the building is just the best.
We are very excited that now that we’re finally able to play live shows again, that we can go back to these grassroots venues and get to experience it all over again!
Ren Harvieu
I’m desperate to get on the road and tour my album, so this is a marriage made in heaven, to get to play live again at last, play these songs, and then of course to get to support our brilliant grassroots venues in getting the microphones lit and amps humming again. What is better than pouring your soul out to people who choose to spend their time and money coming to see it
The grassroots venues are the petri dishes of love and life, music and joy, shared grief and rage and celebration all in one. It’s where we go to learn how to be the stars of tomorrow; to listen to the stars of tomorrow; to be inspired by other acts or musicians; and to talk to human beings face to face and hear what the songs mean to them. It’s where we go to be around other people like us. I see you, searching for the darkest corners…
It’s where we are the stars of today, amongst the heroes of yesteryear. It’s music, it’s the smell of history in the foam of the microphone; it’s the graffiti of other people’s dreams on floorboards and dressing room walls. It’s home.
The Futureheads
We wanted to be part of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour because grass roots venues have played a big role in our careers as musicians. From organising gigs ourselves as teenagers, to Barry now being involved in running a grass roots venue of his own, we know the role they play in developing a local scene, and how important they are in bringing bands, artists and performers from around the world to your town/City. We’re getting a chance to visit some places with this tour that we haven’t played before, and we’re also going back to a couple of venues that we haven’t been in for a long time.
It’s been well over a year since we packed our bags and went off on tour, so Revive Live gives us the opportunity to get back to performing live, which is something we’ve missed a lot lately…
Thomas Headon
I’m super excited to be doing shows in these grassroots venues. My whole career so far has consisted of lockdowns and rescheduling, so having the opportunity to be able to get out and really play to people who care means a lot to me. It’s also just so important for artists as well as fans to have these kind of shows at a time like this, with the world slowly reopening it feels good to be a part of something that we’ll all remember for a long time.
Tusks
Grassroots venues are one of the best things about the UK music industry for me – I love the intimacy and character you get from each one and there’s something so special and individual about gigs there compared to larger shows – both as an artist and as an audience member. Grassroots venues take a punt on musicians from the very beginning and give us chances to play our first shows, support larger bands, build musical communities and without them the UK music scene would look and feel completely different.
Touring gets pretty costly so without funding it can be really hard to make it work financially, especially after a year and a half of living through the Coronavirus pandemic. Having funding through The National Lottery’s investment is amazing. It takes that financial pressure off your shoulders so you can concentrate on the music and creating the best show and experience possible.
Twin Atlantic
Without grassroots venues there would be a huge gap in our culture. They are the breeding grounds for imagination and the realisation of many people’s impossible dreams coming true. We have literally played nearly every small independent venue up and down the UK and it’s an honour to get to perform these one-off headline shows to shine a light on how vital these hotspots are for new bands who are learning their craft, on their way to making their wildest dreams come into fruition.
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