AJ Tracey will be live and direct at smaller venues

Grassroots music venues have praised rapper AJ Tracey for including them in his latest tour.

The platinum-selling artist will play at destinations including The Baths in Ipswich and Bedford Esquires as part of a run of 10 dates at smaller venues.

Tracey said he was visiting locations requested by fans, some of which he had never played before.

Joe Bailey, CEO of Brighten the Corners, which runs the 300-capacity venue in Ipswich, hoped other big artists would be inspired to do the same.

He said: “We’re really excited to have such a large, contemporary artist like AJ Tracey come to Ipswich – it’s incredible, especially to a grassroots venue like The Baths.

“We hope this gig reaches new audiences and further puts Ipswich on the touring map, showing that artists as big as AJ Tracey can come here and perform.

“The venue has such limited capacity compared to his arena shows, this really will be an ‘I was there moment’.”

The Ladbroke Grove artist will perform in other similarly sized venues such as The Joiners in Southampton and The Exchange in Bristol.

The Music Venue Trust recently reported that 43.8% of grassroots music venues were operating at a loss.

It pointed to a “concerning trend” that between 1994 and 2024, artists have begun to tour in fewer locations in the UK and have focused increasingly on a small group of cities.

Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, said: “It’s vitally important to get more artists out to more great venues in under-serviced towns and cities.

“We have fantastic live music communities all across the country desperate to see great artists, and this initiative is exactly what needs to be done to meet that demand.”

Gareth Barber runs Bedford Esquires and hopes Tracey sets an example for others to follow.

“It’s very exciting to see AJ Tracey come to town as part of this tour, and I have massive respect for him, going out and playing so many grassroots spaces as opposed to the usual cities and venues,” he said.

“Hopefully, this helps pave the way for other artists to be more adventurous when planning shows and widening both their own and the venues’ audiences.

“From a personal point of view, it will be nice to have someone else to moan about Spurs to!”