Graham Nash donates £10,000 towards battle to save Salford Lads Club
The beloved space – which famously featured on the cover of The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead – faces imminent closure.
By Nick Reilly
Legendary musician Graham Nash has donated £10,000 to save the historic Salford Lads Club in Manchester after it was revealed that the revered space faces closure.
The Greater Manchester club – which was immortalised on The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead artwork – was confirmed earlier this week as facing the threat of imminent closure.
Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell first opened the Ordsall club in 1904, but it is now under threat due to a lack of funding and rising costs.
It is open six days a week and offers a safe space for young people from some of the city’s most depreived communities, but it must now raise £250,000 by next month to stay open.
Now, it’s been confirmed that Nash has dished out £10,000 to save the beloved space. The former Crosby, Stills and Nash and Hollies singer spent formative moments of his childhood at the club and his donation can now been seen on GoFundMe.
It has raised £28,000 at the time of writing.
Nash also returned to the club in 2016 for an event, while Chanel hosted a fashion event there in 2016 ahead of a star-studded show at Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
As for the club’s current financial situation, The Guardian reports that its income for 2023 was around £160,000, with outgoings adding up to £394,700. The club also faces eye-watering annual bills of a staggering £43,000 (including utilised, insurance and building maintenance).