The 1975 frontman Matty Healy has warned of a musical “silence” that would come without the pubs and bars that give UK artists their first chance to perform.

Fresh from headlining Glastonbury in June, Healy is backing a new UK-wide festival which will see more than 2,000 gigs taking place across more than 1,000 “seed” venues in September.

The Seed Sounds Weekender aims to celebrate the hospitality sector hosting bands and singers just as they are starting out – and for some, before they go on to become global superstars.

Healy, who is an ambassador for the event, said in a statement to Sky News: “Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture.

“Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”

Oasis, currently making headlines thanks to their sold-out reunion tour, first played at Manchester’s Boardwalk club, which closed in 1999, and famously went on to play stadiums and their huge Knebworth gigs within the space of a few years.

GigPig, the live music marketplace behind Seed Sounds, says the seed sector collectively hosts more than three million gigs annually, supports more than 43,000 active musicians, and contributes an estimated £2.4bn to the UK economy.

“The erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible,” said Healy.

“What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.”

He described the Seed Sounds Weekender as “a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas – it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”

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The importance of funding for grassroots venues has been highlighted in the past few years, with more than 200 closing or stopping live music in 2023 and 2024, according to the Music Venue Trust. Sheffield’s well-known Leadmill venue saw its last gig in its current form in June, after losing a long-running eviction battle.

In May, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced the £85m Creative Foundations Fund to support arts venues across England.

And last year, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee called for a levy on tickets to large concerts at stadiums and arenas to help fund grassroots venues, which artists including Coldplay and Katy Perry, and venues including the Royal Albert Hall, have backed.

But most seed venues – the smaller spaces in the hospitality sector that provide a platform before artists get to ticketed grassroots gigs or bigger stages – won’t qualify for the levy. GigPig is working to change this by formalising the seed music venue space as a recognised category.

“The UK’s seed venues are where music careers are born,” said GigPig co-founder Kit Muir-Rogers. “Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and under-appreciated.”

The Seed Sounds Weekender takes place from 26-28 September and will partner with Uber to give attendees discounted rides to and from venues.

Tickets for most of the gigs will be free, with events taking place across 20 UK towns and cities including London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leicester, Newcastle and Southampton

The legendary WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan, who passed away last week in Florida, died of a heart attack, according to a Florida medical examiner’s report.

Hogan, 71, was pronounced dead in hospital less than 90 minutes after medics arrived at his home in Clearwater, Florida, in response to a call about a “cardiac arrest”.

The report released on Thursday noted his death was from a “natural” cause and formally listed as “acute myocardial infarction”, a technical term for a heart attack.

In his honour, Florida governor Ron DeSantis said flags will be flown at half-staff at all official buildings on Friday, which he declared “Hulk Hogan Day in Florida”.

The pro wrestling icon, whose real name was Terry Gene Bollea, previously had leukaemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, the report from the District Six Medical Examiner added.

Hogan was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history.

He was known for both his larger-than-life personality, including ripping shirts, not just in the ring but also at the Republican National Convention.

Hogan was the main draw for the first-ever WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years in its signature event.

He faced everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even company chairman Vince McMahon.

He claimed his first WWE world championship by defeating the Iron Sheik in 1984.

Hogan went on to win five more world championships and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 by Sylvester Stallone.

He appeared in numerous movies and television shows, including his own reality series, and in 2024 endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

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His death prompted the US president to pay tribute in a Truth Social post, writing that the “Hulkster” was “strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart”.

Among the world of wrestling, WWE icon The Undertaker wrote on X that “the wrestling world has lost a true legend”, while former WWE wrestler Triple H said Hogan was “the archetype of what it meant to be a ‘Superstar’ – a global sensation that inspired millions”.

Hogan was married three times and had two children.

His wife Sky Daily posted on Instagram that Hogan “had been dealing with some health issues, but I truly believed we would overcome them”.

“This loss is sudden and impossible to process,” she added. “To the world, he was a legend… but to me, he was my Terry.”

Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs have called for him to be acquitted of prostitution-related offences, or given a new trial on the same charges.

Combs, 55, was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution at the end of his high-profile trial in New York earlier this month – for flying girlfriends and male sex workers around the US and abroad for sexual encounters referred to as “freak offs”.

However, he was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering, conspiracy and sex-trafficking.

The hip-hop mogul has been in prison since his arrest in September 2024 and is due to be sentenced in October.

On Tuesday, his lawyers made a renewed request for his release on a $50m bond ahead of the hearing.

Now, they have filed another motion to the court, saying it “should either grant a judgment of acquittal or, at a minimum, a new trial” on the prostitution-related offences.

In the new filing, Combs’s defence team said the US government had “painted him as a monster” ever since his arrest, but argued his two-month trial showed allegations of a “20-year racketeering enterprise and of sex trafficking multiple women… were not supported by credible evidence, and the jury rejected them”.

They also say that to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of these charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.

“It is undisputed that he had no commercial motive and that all involved were adults,” the filing states. “The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily. The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”

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They describe the prosecution’s evidence on the counts as “thin at best” and say the trial would have been “totally different” had the rapper only been charged with the prostitution-related offences and not the more serious counts.

“Sean Combs sits in jail based on evidence that he paid adult male escorts and entertainers who engaged in consensual sexual activities with his former girlfriends, which he videotaped and later watched with the girlfriends. That is not prostitution, and if it is, his conviction is unconstitutional,” the filing says.

Combs, one of the most influential hip-hop producers of all time, faces being jailed for several years after his conviction on the prostitution-related charges.

But he was cleared of the more serious charges that could have put him in prison for life – and the verdict was hailed a “victory” by his team.

Immediately after he was acquitted of those charges, his lawyers asked for his release on bond. The request was denied by Judge Arun Subramanian, who heard the trial, and said Combs at the time had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community”.