Bands are heading back to their roots to raise vital funds

ome of Britain’s most acclaimed live acts will be returning to the venues that made them as part of a new campaign.

Elbow, Everything Everything, Public Service Broadcasting and The Slow Readers Club are the first artists to announce gigs for Passport: Back to Our Roots, which will raise money for grassroots music venues at risk of closure. More gigs will be announced soon.

The artists will be playing one-off, intimate shows at grassroots music venues on dates to be confirmed, when it is safe to perform with no social distancing.

Entry to these shows will be via a prize draw which began on Monday August 17 and will run until Monday August 31 via crowdfunder.co.uk/ passport-back-to-our-roots.

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

SFrontman Guy Garvey said: “This is a simple way of looking after the very roots of British music, and will result in some powerful, joyous shows when we can at last see each other again. “I’m very proud to be involved,” he added.

JEverything Everything will play at Bedford Esquires, which also has a capacity of 250.

Jez Pritchard of 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 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 ers Club will be playing at Hebden Bridge Trades Club.

The campaign is the brainchild of Sally Cook, director of operations at Manchester venue Band on the Wall, and Stephen Budd, creator of War Child’s Passport: Back to the Bars and Passport: to BRITs Week series.

They have teamed up with the Music Venue Trust for the campaign. Some 80 per cent of all money raised will go to the trust, which in turn will distribute half of the amount to the host venue with the remainder going into its crisis fund, benefiting all venues in need of financial support.

Mark Dayvd, founder and chief executive of theMusic 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 .

“Live music will be back and when it is we are going to make sure it comes back with experiences people will