The Last Dinner Party shout out grassroots music venues as they win Best New Artist at the BRIT Awards 2025

nme.com:

The Last Dinner Party gave a shout out to the UK’s grassroots music venues as they picked up their BRIT Award for Best New Artist last night (March 1).

Check out their speech below.After picking up the BRITs Rising Star award in 2024, the London band returned this year to take Best New Artist, following the release of their debut album ‘Prelude To Ecstasy‘.During their speech, they took a moment to highlight the current challenges facing grassroots music venues in the UK.

It follows reports that 2024 saw the UK lose one grassroots music venue every two weeks – with nearly half making a loss and 200 remaining in a state of emergency as the country faces a “collapse in touring”.“We wouldn’t be a band, and a lot of the artists here would not be bands either, without the UK’s incredible independent venues and they are the lifeblood of the music industry, and they are dying,” said bassist Georgia Davies.“And if venues like this, like the O2, arenas, stadiums across this country contributed even a tiny bit towards 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 wanted to say to all of those artists playing independent venues all across the country tonight, keep going because that’s the best kind of art there is,” she continued. “And, in a time when art is under threat, that is the most important thing to keep supporting.” You can watch their full speech below.The idea that the upper echelons of the music industry should be paying back into the grassroots and wider ecosystem was backed by the government’s CMS Select committee enquiry last year before a levy on stadium and arena gigs was recommended.