Britain is quietly losing its grassroots music venues. And with them, the places where every great artist you love first learned to play.Mark Davyd, founder and CEO of Music Venue Trust, has spent most of his life in and around live music. His relationship with school was complicated. Music gave him somewhere to belong and eventually a direction in life that could easily have gone the other way.In this conversation Mark opens up about:How music saved him when education failed himThe fragile and frankly bonkers economics of keeping a grassroots venue openWhat Britain stands to lose as these venues close one by oneWhy grassroots venues are still the only real development path for new artistsThe people who keep opening the doors despite everything working against themWhy being in the room when live music happens is genuinely different from anything elseAnd a simple challenge that costs almost nothingThis is a conversation about music. But really it is about community, belonging, and what happens when we stop showing up.The challenge from Mark: go to the gig you were not going to go to. You never know what you will find.Find Music Venue Trust: musicvenuetrust.comMore from The Third Half: www.thethirdhalf.uk#MusicVenueTrust #MarkDavyd #LiveMusic #GrassrootsMusic #TheThirdHalf #MusicPodcast