Elbow, Everything Everything, Public Service Broadcasting and The Slow Readers Club are the first artists to announce gigs for Passport: Back to Our Roots, the new campaign to raise money for grassroots music venues at risk of closure. More gigs will be announced soon.
Entry to these shows will be via a prize draw which will run for two weeks from Monday 17 August. For a £5 minimum donation to the campaign, music fans will be entered into the draw to win entry to the show of their choice for themselves and a guest.
Elbow will be returning to Night & Day, three decades after they first performed at the Manchester venue.
Jez, Everything Everything, said: ‘Like all artists worth their salt, we came up through smaller rooms and tiny stages, learning our craft as we went. So often these vital venues are run on a shoestring, but what they provide to their community socially and artistically is invaluable. The Back to Our Roots project is helping grassroots music venues back on their feet after these testing times. We wanted to come to Esquires [in Bedford] as it’s exactly the sort of gig we’d have done ten years ago, but actually never had the opportunity to. It’s our pleasure to be involved.’
Audio-visual songsmiths Public Service Broadcasting will be performing at The Amersham Arms in New Cross, while The Slow Readers Club will be playing at Hebden Bridge Trades Club.
The brainchild of Sally Cook, Director of Operations at Band on the Wall, and Stephen Budd, creator of War Child’s Passport: Back to the Bars and Passport: to BRITs Week series, Passport: Back to Our Roots has partnered with Music Venue Trust to raise much needed funds to safeguard the futures of grassroots music venues struggling to survive the COVID-19 crisis.
80 percent of all money raised will go to the Music Venue Trust, who in turn will distribute half of the amount to the host venue with the remainder going into their Crisis Fund, benefiting all venues in need of financial support. The remaining 20 percent will go to Inner City Music, the charitable organisation that operates the multi-award winning not-for-profit historic music venue Band on the Wall in Manchester, which is responsible for the administration of the project and will cover its overheads.
Seeing established artists live in an intimate setting that holds real significance for them is at the heart of the Passport: Back to Our Roots campaign, which aims to capture the true essence of the live music experience and the unique bond between artist and audience.
Mark Dayvd, founder and chief executive, Music Venue Trust, said: ‘Our #saveourvenues campaign has been very successful so far in raising funds and awareness to support grassroots music venues who have been hit very hard in recent months, but we are not complacent and are under no illusions that there still many challenges to overcome . There remains lots of work to do to safeguard the future of our venues and Passport: Back to Our Roots is an excellent and timely initiative that will help keep a spotlight on what still needs to be done while raising desperately needed revenue. Live music will be back and when it is we are going to make sure it comes back with experiences people will never forget.’
