Passport: Back To The Bars/Passport: To BRITs Week is a charity fundraising project featuring internationally famous music artists performing intimate shows in small venues in the UK. It was originally conceived and created by music executive Stephen Budd and featured 20 shows across 6 venues around the UK in a week in March 2004. [1] [2] These shows generated significant sums of money for two UK registered charities War Child and Shelter. [3]
The project was revived in 2015 and raised over £500,000 for War Child. [4]
The first edition featured shows by; The Cure, [5] [6] Amy Winehouse, Elbow, Pet Shop Boys, David Gray, [7] The Darkness, Sugababes, Travis, Craig David, Katie Melua, Blazin Squad, Ash, Starsailor, Atomic Kitten, Badly Drawn Boy, Supergrass, Super Furry Animals, Lemar, Spiritualized and Divine Comedy during six nights of concerts held across the UK (Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and York) during March 1–6, 2004 at the small 200-500 capacity venues belonging to the Barfly chain, (a part of Channelfly, now MAMA Group PLC). [8]
The 2015 edition featured performances from Elbow, Duran Duran, You Me At Six, Bastille, The Vaccines and Ride. [9] [10] The week long series of events, in association with O2, London Evening Standard, XFM, NME and The Brit Awards raised over £500,000 for War Child [11] [12] and won the 'Best Use Of Events' awards at the National Fundraising Awards 2015. [13]
The 2016 series was announced on 20 January 2016, was renamed Passport To BRITs Week and featured Coldplay, Jack Garratt, Bring Me the Horizon, Bloc Party, Frank Turner, Professor Green, Jamie xx, Above & Beyond, Lianne La Havas and Florence And The Machine [14]
It was the first time that charity concerts had employed a 'Text Message Lottery'; the public paid £1.50 to send a text to a premium rate number in order to get their ‘name in the hat’ to win a pair of entries to an individual artist’s show. The text numbers were promoted via the Daily Mirror and Trinity Mirror’s regional titles, via custom made adverts on MTV’s channels, online partner’s AOL Music site, the artists’ own websites and databases, Music Week, The Fly magazine and other media partners. In order to prevent touts and profiteering, there were no physical tickets issued. Entry winners were notified by text that they would only be able to gain entry by showing their passport at the door - hence the name of the project. Several pairs of ‘entries’ for each show were retained and auctioned online to the highest bidder via eBay. This auction also served as a publicity generator for the project as well as raising additional substantial sums.
The very small size of the shows meant that these were deemed as unmissable occasions for fans of the featured artists and also had no negative effect on ticket sales for the artist’s normal shows.
The text mechanism 'lottery' was subsequently adopted by the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park the following year.
Blur are an English rock band formed in London in 1988. The band consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bass guitarist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Their debut album, Leisure (1991), incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegaze. Following a stylistic change influenced by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, the Beatles and XTC, Blur released the albums Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a widely publicised chart battle with rival band Oasis in 1995 dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".
William John Paul Gallagher is an English singer and songwriter who achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009. He later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before starting a successful solo career in 2017. Oasis had various line-up changes; Gallagher and his elder brother Noel were the only constant members. One of the most recognisable figures in British rock music, Gallagher is noted for his distinctive vocal style and outspoken personality.
Elbow are an English rock band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester in 1997. The band consists of Guy Garvey, Craig Potter, Mark Potter and Pete Turner. They have played together since 1990, adopting the name Elbow in 1997. Drummer Alex Reeves replaced Richard Jupp in 2016 as a touring and session musician at first, before becoming a full member in 2024.
Brandon Richard Flowers is an American musician. He serves as the co-founder, lead vocalist, primary songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas-based rock band the Killers, which he formed with Dave Keuning in 2001.
War Child International is an independent non-government organization founded in 1993 by film-makers Bill Leeson, David Wilson, and peace activist Willemijn Verloop. The organization works with parents, caregivers, community members, NGOs, governments, corporations, and other partners worldwide to ensure that children have access to protection, education and psychosocial support. War Child's work is rooted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Mark Daniel Ronson is a British-born musician and DJ based in the United States. He has won eight Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year for Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black (2006), as well as two for Record of the Year with her 2006 single "Rehab" and his own 2014 single "Uptown Funk". He has also won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award for co-writing "Shallow" for the film A Star Is Born (2018). Ronson served as lead and executive producer for the soundtrack to the 2023 fantasy comedy film Barbie, on which he also composed and co-wrote several of its songs with his production partner Andrew Wyatt. The soundtrack won three Grammy Awards—"What Was I Made For?" won Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, while the parent album won Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media—from 11 nominations, as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song from two nominations.
Guy Edward John Garvey is an English musician, singer, songwriter and radio presenter. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Elbow. He has a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music titled Guy Garvey's Finest Hour.
Adam Richard Wiles, known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His debut studio album, I Created Disco, was released in June 2007. Its singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls" both reached the top 10 in the UK. In 2009, he released his second studio album, Ready for the Weekend, which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and whose lead single, "I'm Not Alone", became his first song to top the UK Singles Chart.
Scouting for Girls are an English pop rock band. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook Scouting for Boys. The band was formed in 2005 by three childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on piano and lead guitar/vocals, Greg Churchouse on bass guitar and James Rowlands on drums. They signed to Epic Records in 2007 and released their self-titled debut album that September and it reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in 2008. To date, it has sold over 1 million copies in the UK.
Courteeners are an English band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 2006 by Liam Fray, Michael Campbell, Daniel "Conan" Moores and Mark Cuppello (bass); the last was replaced by the band's producer Joe Cross in 2015. They previously toured with pianist Adam Payne, who has been featured on every album, but in 2019 was replaced with Elina Lin. In December 2012, the band dropped "The" from their name, continuing simply as "Courteeners".
James Russell is a British Award Winning Multi Camera Director of live music, events, promos, studio and DVD content. With over 23 years of experience as a Director, he now works on a freelance basis. He has recorded live music performances from a diverse range of artists such as Liam Gallagher, Morrissey, Katy Perry, Jay Z, Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Bastille, Stereophonics, Backstreet Boys, Editors, QOTSA, Duran Duran, The Cure and KSI to name a few.
Samantha Louise Hall, better known as Goldierocks, is a British DJ, broadcaster, journalist and voice over artist.
Edward Christopher Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play No. 5 Collaborations Project. He signed with Asylum Records the same year.
Bastille are a British indie pop band formed in 2010. The group began as a solo project by lead vocalist Dan Smith, but later expanded to include keyboardist Kyle Simmons, bassist and guitarist Will Farquarson and drummer Chris "Woody" Wood.
Stephen Budd is a British music industry executive based in London. He is a director of artist and producer management company Stephen Budd Music Ltd, the OneFest Festival, the Africa Express project and is the co-founder of the NH7 Weekender festivals in India. He is a recognised TV commentator on music industry issues, regularly appearing on a variety of British TV news shows. In June 2017 he completed his 3-year term as co-chairman of the MMF. He is a co-executive producer of Amnesty International and Sofar Sounds' ‘Give A Home’ global concert series. His current management roster includes the artists Dry The River and Nubiyan Twist, along with the record producers Rob Ellis, Tore Johansson, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Nick Zinner, Mike Hedges, and Arthur Verocai.
Ella McMahon, known professionally as Ella Eyre, is an English singer and songwriter. She is known for her collaborations with Rudimental on their UK number-one single "Waiting All Night" (2013), which won the 2014 Brit Award for British Single of the Year, with DJ Fresh on his single "Gravity" (2015), and with Sigala on his singles "Came Here for Love" (2017) and "Just Got Paid" (2018). Her debut EP, Deeper, was released in 2013 and her debut album, Feline, was released in 2015. Eyre's musical influences include Lauryn Hill, Etta James, Basement Jaxx and Hans Zimmer.
Sofar Sounds(Songs from a Room), is a music events startup company, responsible for various small performances, hosted in over 400 cities. Founded in 2009, they are headquartered at the Roundhouse, in London.
David Orobosa Michael Omoregie, known professionally as Dave or Santan Dave, is a British rapper and actor. He is known for his socially conscious lyricism and wordplay.
John Kennedy is a British DJ and radio presenter and podcast host, best known for his longstanding role as the host of the music show X-Posure on Radio X and for the music podcast Tape Notes.
Passport: Back To The Bars/Back To The Brits