While accepting the award for Best New Artist, the band asked arenas like the O2 to contribute to keeping grassroots venues afloat.
2024 Rising Star winners The Last Dinner Party picked up their second award at The BRITs this year, this time for Best New Artist.
Collecting the award, bassist Georgia Davies spoke on behalf of the band to shout out the UK’s independent music venues.
“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,” she said. “They are the lifeblood of the music industry, and they are dying.”
Last year, a report from the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) highlighted the crisis currently facing the UK nightlife industry, with three nightclubs shuttering a week between December 2023 and June 2024.
“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.”
She continued: “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. And in a time where art is under threat, that is the most important thing to keep supporting.”
Read Crack Magazine’s recent report on the UK’s DIY music spaces going against the grain here.
