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The Wombats, The Wytches, Dry The River and more awarded UK government grants

The Music Export Growth Scheme is set to dish out £2.5 million pounds to help British acts break overseas.

7th August 2014

Bolstered on by acts like Adele and Bastille and Alt-J - who have all achieved wide success overseas - the government are continuing their scheme to boost the profile of British acts, and the latest batch of recipients is out now. Imogen Heap, The Wytches, Dry the River, and Fenech-Soler are all among those chosen for the grants, along with The Wombats. If the latter band play their cards right, their music might just be moving to New York.

Last October David Cameron held a meeting with music executives at Downing Street (what a sorry scene to imagine) and announced that the Music Export Growth scheme will handing out £2.5 million pounds in grants over the next two years. So far £750,000 has been dished out to the likes of Young Fathers, Bo Ningen, Metronomy, Drenge, and Slow Club, with grants going mainly towards touring costs to help established UK acts break into international territories.

The announcement comes along with new figures from the BPI (British Phonographic Institute), showing that independent companies are accounting for a large proportion of the entire market. In the first half of this year, independent artists were responsible for more than a quarter (27.4%) of all album sales.

This scheme isn’t the first time that Whitehall has attempted to be alternative. MP Tom Watson famously tendered his resignation from shadow election coordinator by recommending DIY favourite Drenge to his boss, Ed Miliband. Meanwhile Ed Miliband was too busy listening to A-Ha to care, while David Cameron successfully put a lot of people off London Grammar by liking them.

The full list of bands recieving grants is:

Antlered Man
Dry The River
Fearless Vampire Killers
Fenech-Soler
Fink
Ghetts
Hadouken
Imogen Heap
Max Cooper
Smoove & Turrell
The Answer
The Heavy
The Wombats
The Wytches
Waylayers

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