Phil Selway gives an In Rainbows drum to save Oxford's Cellar

Phil Selway has given the Cellar, a basement music club in Oxford, a signed drum he played on tour and on the recording of In Rainbows. It will be offered for £5,000 on the club's crowdfunding page when the appeal, Cellar Forever, opens on Monday 29 October. The Oxford Mail has the full report.

It is venues like this that are actually the life blood of music; they support and nurture new and emerging talent.

Philip Selway²

At the Cellar, he says, with its history of hosting bands like Foals and The National and Mumford and Sons, there's an extra incentive as a performer to raise your game².

The Cellar, in Frewin Court off Cornmarket, is Oxford's last independent music venue, and bands have played there and in the club before it for more than 45 years. A year ago more than 13,600 people signed a petition against a plan to turn it into storage for the shop above. Gaz Coombes, once of Supergrass, Mark Gardener of Ride and members of Foals, who played some of their earliest gigs there, are backing the appeal.

In June Oxfordshire County Council's inspectors found the club's 70cm fire escape was 30cm too narrow and cut the number allowed in from 150 to 60, too few for live music to pay. The Cellar needs £80,000 to widen the exit and make up its losses, and unless it raises the money it closes on 3 December.