![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/33dac0933ccccb4829d81112024454a8.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThere are a number of methods of travelling to a concert, but the chances are, the average music fan hasn’t considered an ultra-marathon.<\/p>\n
That’s how Andy Hobson, 34, is planning to reach the London Stadium next Friday. He is running from his hometown of Leeds to London to see Sam Fender in concert.<\/p>\n
His journey will start outside the Brudenell Social Club on Saturday, and will end on the 6 June in the Olympic Park in east London, where Fender is performing.<\/p>\n
The 252 mile (407km) journey will be in support of the Music Venue Trust, a charity which acts to protect UK grassroots music venues, and which Andy believes he “owes his life to” during struggles with his mental health.<\/p>\n
Andy, who works in the emergency services, was not originally planning the marathon fundraiser when he bought tickets to see Fender play in London, as part of his People Watching tour.<\/p>\n
He said: “I bought the ticket and instantly I thought, I wonder if I can run from Leeds to London?”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People Watching is Fender’s first UK tour since 2022 [Getty Images]<\/p>\n
Andy is using the challenge to raise money for grassroot music venues “to help make a difference to that sector”.<\/p>\n
“I loved going to music venues, especially small independent ones, when I was struggling with my mental health,” he said.<\/p>\n
“On a particular day, when I wasn’t feeling too great, I would book a tickets for the most random gig.<\/p>\n
“I knew I would go into those places and feel a sense of community, so I wanted to create a fundraiser to help make a difference to that sector – which I felt like, at the time I was struggling, I owe my life to it” he said.<\/p>\n
In addition, Fender is donating \u00a31 from every ticket sale sold for the UK dates to the charity, something which “reinforced” Andy’s decision.<\/p>\n
During the week-long journey, Andy will start and end each leg at a different music venue, including the Leadmill in Sheffield which recently announced it is leaving its current venue.<\/a><\/p>\n Friends, music and podcasts will power Andy through the challenge, which he plans to break into 10-hour running shifts.<\/p>\n He said the financial outlay he has spent on equipment will be another incentive to complete the challenge.<\/p>\n “Once I get stuff like the clothing and branding – being a Yorkshire man – it gets me thinking, I have paid for it now – so I have to do the job now. I have got to see it through.<\/p>\n “Even in the difficult bits, I will think, I have paid for this top – I have to do it now!”<\/p>\n So which Sam Fender songs will provide Andy with inspiration on his journey?<\/p>\n “Seventeen Going Under will feel like such a big song. But recently, off his latest album, Nostalgia’s Lie has been quite a good song for me.<\/p>\n “It feels very relevant to this journey. I’m sort of looking towards my future self, if that makes sense?”<\/p>\n Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a number of methods of travelling to a concert, but the chances are, the average music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[62982,748,62985,393,4884,1860,257,62984,62983,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-146448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-andy-hobson","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-brudenell-social-club","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-music-venues","16":"tag-sam-fender","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114601737852569761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}