The Goats Toe wins PRS for music regional award
The Goat’s Toe in Bangor has been named as PRS for Music’s winner of its Back to Live Music Venue Prize of £10,000 for the Northern Ireland region.
The recovery-focused nationwide competition was launched by PRS for Music to give independent live music venues across the UK the chance to win one of six regional prizes of up to £10,000 and inject much-needed financial support into venues that are dedicated to improving live music experiences in their local communities.
PRS is a UK-headquartered organisation that represents the rights of over 160,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers around the world
So far, Chesterfield’s The County Music Bar (Midlands and North of England region), Carmarthen’s CWRW (pronounced koo-roo, for the Welsh region) and Paisely’s The Bungalow (Scotland region) have been announced as winners of the prize, alongside winner for Northern Ireland, The Goat’s Toe.
The Goat’s Toe Manager, Mark Ennis and Amanda Whittaker, marketing manager, Wolf Inns, (above) plan to use the £10,000 PRS for Music Back to Live Music Venue Prize to host more original music competitions, whilst investing money into a marketing and social media campaign to help promote events.
Mark said: “The Goat’s Toe is thrilled to be awarded the PRS for Music Back To Live Prize. The venue has come in leaps and bounds since it opened its doors in 2011, with a focus on live music. The Goat will continue to support and showcase original, up-and-coming, and established musicians across the board. With the much appreciated support from PRS, we will grow and expand our ideas and our facility. We are excited to see where the journey takes us. Bangor as a city has a lot to offer, may we continue to shine!”
The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the live music sector has been well-documented; between 2019 and 2021, PRS for Music saw an 84% decline in the number of live performance setlists reported to the organisation, falling from 124,000 in 2019, to 19,300 in 2021.
Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO, PRS for Music, said: “Venues that promote up-and-coming talent like The Goat’s Toe are vitally important to the health and growth of music in the UK. The Back to Live Music Venue Prize has emerged as a catalyst to support the teams behind local venues who play a real part in developing talent across the UK.”
Tony Barton, Head of Writer Relations, PRS for Music, said: “I’m very impressed with The Goat’s Toe and the talent it supports in the UK. Their enthusiasm and support for emerging talent is exactly what the UK music scene needs as it recovers from the pandemic. We wish the team there many more years success in enabling fresh talent to follow their musical dreams.”
