Danny Dyer used his hosting slot at the ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards to criticise the government and call for greater support for grassroots music venues.
The Rivals actor fronted the ceremony at Camden’s Roundhouse on Thursday night, with his daughters Dani, 29, and Sunnie, 18, watching from the crowd.
Opening the show, he riffed on Katy Perry’s space venture and Coldplay’s kiss-cam moment before turning to the state of the arts.
Dyer praised Sam Fender for donating his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), which campaigns to protect small independent venues across the UK.
“Finally, can we give a round of applause to Sam Fender who donated his £25,000 prize for winning the Mercury Music Prize to the Music Venue Trust,” he told the room, urging guests to dig deep.
“Basically, if you’ve got it, give us your f**king money because these sort of places are important for the arts, for society and for our souls and they need our help,” he said, before taking aim at the government: “Because unfortunately our government is run by c***s.”
His comments come as the MVT warns of an escalating crisis.
Since 2023, more than 150 grassroots venues have closed amid rising costs, lower spending and debts left over from the pandemic.
The charity is pushing for a £1 levy on all tickets for concerts above 5,000 capacity, with funds redirected to the small rooms where many major artists, including Fender, began their careers.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport previously said it “fully supports” the introduction of the scheme, which has already been embraced by acts such as Pulp, Enter Shikari and Ed Sheeran, who have added similar levies to their ticket prices to help support smaller venues.
Meanwhile, the awards drew a starry guest list including Jessie J, Mo Gilligan, Mutya Buena, Mika, Siobhan McSweeney, Jamie Laing, Tom Allen, Tamsin Greig and The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess.
The Play Next Award went to Scottish folk singer Jacob Alon, while Jamie Campbell Bower picked up the Television Award for his turn as Vecna in the final season of Stranger Things.
The Gamechanger Award was awarded to the cast of the BBC’s acclaimed Riot Women and its creator, Sally Wainwright.
Sir Bob Geldof collected the Lifetime Achievement Award while FKA twigs took home the Album Award, presented by Radio 1’s Sian Eleri.
The Icon Award went to The Cranberries, with guitarist Noel Hogan accepting the honour from Dermot Kennedy. Hogan later joined Royel Otis for a musical tribute to the band’s late frontwoman, Dolores O’Riordan, singing their hit Linger.
Elsewhere, performances came from Myles Smith, who also picked up the Breakthrough Award, Alon and Fayth Ifil from Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical.
Lewis Capaldi received The Artist Award, returning to the public eye two years after being named 2023’s Gamechanger for his openness around mental health.
He told the audience: “Genuinely it’s been such a special year for me coming back here. I had a really hard time a few years ago... I had a really, really difficult time and I never knew if I was going to come back to music.
“The two years I spent away were really hard. I had a lot of s**t going on so to be able to come back and have people be so welcoming and stuff, genuinely meant the f**king world to me.”
“Music isn’t about awards, it’s not a competition, but on this occasion I won,” he concluded with a laugh.
