The Music Venue Trust + National Lottery ‘Revive Live’ tour starts next week and includes 121 shows
The Music Venue Trust, an organisation dedicated to the preservation and support of grass roots live music venues, has joined forces with the National Lottery to create the ‘Revive Live’ gig tour, designed to jump-start live music’s post-lockdown recovery in England.
The National Lottery has supplied £1M which is being used to underwrite the shows, following the Government’s announcement that stage 4 of the unlocking roadmap will go ahead on July 19th. Starting next week and running through to the end of September, 121 dates around England have been announced, featuring a lineup that includes Tom Jones, Seasick Steve, Mahalia Music, Frank Turner, Luna Bay, The Futureheads, James Arthur, and Rag’n’Bone Man – among many others.
Free Plus-One Tickets
Recognising that lockdown has left many folk feeling isolated and skint, some of the National Lottery has been used to provide free ‘plus-one’ tickets for Lottery players – to take advantage of this offer, you simply need to buy a gig ticket for your show of choice, then turn up at the venue with a friend and proof of a lottery ticket purchase – this could be a scratch card or a ticket bought via the National Lottery app – and your friend can enter free of charge. For more details on this scheme, including terms and conditions, visit the Revive Live website.
The artist Tusks, a personal favourite of BarLifeUK, has this to say about the tour: “Grassroots venues are one of the best things about the UK music industry for me – I love the intimacy and character you get from each one and there’s something so special and individual about gigs there compared to larger shows – both as an artist and as an audience member. Grassroots venues take a punt on musicians from the very beginning and give us chances to play our first shows, support larger bands, build musical communities and without them the UK music scene would look and feel completely different Touring gets pretty costly so without funding it can be really hard to make it work financially, especially after a year and a half of living through the Coronavirus pandemic. Having funding through the Lottery’s investment is amazing. It takes that financial pressure off your shoulders so you can concentrate on the music and creating the best show and experience possible.”
If, like us, you’ve found the lack of live music one of the worst aspects of lockdown life, the Revive Live tour in an excellent opportunity to reacquaint yourself with sticky floors and warm cans of Red Strip whilst listening to music with a friend, along with helping music venues recover from 18 months of enforced closure. Get stuck in: