Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents hundreds of grassroots music venues, has announced The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour will return in January 2022 with tours by a diverse range of artists including KEG, The Wytches, Cultdreams, Ferris & Sylvester, The Kut, Good Karma Club, BLOCS, Strange Bones, Calva Louise and LibraLibra.
The tour will also see headline artists, including Enter Shikari, Becky Hill, Bastille, Feeder, Kojey Radical, Maisie Peters and The Coral, performing special one-off shows to highlight the importance of grassroots music venues.
Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari, who are playing at Club 85 in Hitchin, says:
Since we were 15 we’ve been playing grassroots venues up and down the country. They were our home and gave us the opportunity to develop into the band we are today. One of those venues was Club 85. So it’s so great to be able to return and play there again after more than a decade and help highlight the fact that these venues need support especially right now after they’ve been sat empty for nearly two years. Without grassroots venues like Club 85 and all the other places we played as kids (a lot of which have already, sadly, been consigned to the history books) there’s less of a chance that four teenagers can change their own, or anyone else’s, lives. They are breeding grounds for new music as well as strong communities. And THAT’S why we’re doing this.
Shows will be taking place across the country, with National Lottery players having a chance to bring a ‘plus one’ for free. This extension of The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour follows the overwhelming success of the inaugural tour during the summer which saw The National Lottery contribute £1M to directly underwrite the touring and production costs of hundreds of live performances, enabling the grassroots live music industry to start promoting shows again in the knowledge that the upfront costs associated with touring were fully covered.
Becky Hill, who will be returning to Birmingham’s Sunflower Lounge where she played as a teenager, said “Playing this venue will most likely have me regressing to that 17 year old young woman, with her whole life ahead of her, & make me very, very grateful for where I am now. I’ve worked so hard & often forget to look back at where I’ve come from. Live music is so important for memories like this, it’s been devastating we’ve been gone so long without it & I hope The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour gives the legs back to the events industry it so desperately needs”
The National Lottery will once again underwrite the full touring and production costs of artists participating as part of their ongoing commitment to the grassroots music sector. This support for the live music sector forms part of a continuing collaboration between VisitBritain and The National Lottery to support the UK Visitor economy.
Ticketmaster, a long-standing partner of MVT, will provide all ticketing for the tour.
Not only is this a tour with an impressive line-up, it’s a tour that will fill up these treasured grassroots venues that have sat empty for far too long. Now is the time for everyone to step up, and we’re happy to do our bit by donating even more from our booking fee directly back to these venues who need it the most. ~ Andrew Parsons, Ticketmaster UK MD
Touring as part of the campaign, Dan Rumsey of The Wytches notes:
We are really excited to be back out on the road with The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of because these small venues are very close to our hearts. They helped us become a band and find ourselves when we were first starting out. Without them there would be no bands. That’s why the campaign is so important, it allows musicians to go out and do what they love, and in turn keeps the grassroots venues open and running as they should be!
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.
Tickets go on sale Friday December 3rd, 2021 at 10am from Ticketweb