Wolf Alice urge action for small venues after Best British Group win at BRIT Awards
wolf alice won Best British Group at the 2026 BRIT Awards on February 28 at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena, and frontwoman Ellie Rowsell used the acceptance speech to press for greater backing for small and grassroots music venues. Her intervention came as a January report found 30 venues closed in the 12 months up to July 2025 and a further 48 ceased operating as gig spaces, a tally Rowsell wove into her appeal.
Ellie Rowsell's acceptance and dedication
Ellie Rowsell, 33, accepted the Best British Group trophy and dedicated the win to the people who helped the band in their early years. She thanked friends and fans who lent money, drove the band around the country, let them sleep on floors and bought tickets to early shows — and quipped about people who bought a piece of the band’s “atrocious merch, ” adding that the joke was “completely fair enough. ”
Rowsell also used the platform to name the crisis facing grassroots venues, citing figures that place the problem in stark relief: 30 independent venues closed down last year, 6, 000 jobs were lost and over half of small venues reported making no profit. Because venues have fallen and jobs have gone, she argued, bands and artists are being forced into a position where survival depends on favours or targeted funding rather than music as a viable career choice.
What makes this notable is that Rowsell connected very specific human costs — loss of rehearsal and performance spaces and the small-scale networks that sustain emerging acts — to wider economic figures, urging that the industry’s success should translate into active measures to nurture the grassroots that feed it.
Wolf Alice at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena
The north London band collected the Best British Group prize on the night and beat nominees that included Pulp, The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg. The win marks a repeat of their previous success in this category in 2022. The award was handed over on stage by Happy Mondays stars Shaun Ryder and Bez, who chanted “Manchester” as they took to the microphone.
Camera team and the racy fashion moment
The ceremony also included an on-air tussle over framing: broadcasters worked to keep shots within transmission standards while Rowsell pulled off what was described as racy fashion on stage. Camera operators were reported to be managing shots closely to avoid showing certain parts of her outfit on live broadcast, a moment that ran alongside the band’s substantive speech.
Live schedule: Finsbury Park, OVO Arena Wembley and Royal Albert Hall
Rowsell’s speech also preceded a busy run of live dates for the band. wolf alice released their fourth album, The Clearing, last year; the record earned a five-star review and was placed at Number 11 on a year-end best albums list. The single “Bloom Baby Bloom” was placed at Number 12 on a year-end songs list.
