The Lottery Winners have some seriously famous friends (Picture: Bonnie Britain/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)
Once one of our greatest cultural exports, British rock bands are facing a serious drought in the UK charts right now – but that could be about to change.
The Lottery Winners could be the guitar band to break the pop domination and fill that chart void with their newly announced album KOKO.
Last year they landed a breakthrough number-one album and are gunning to do the same but this time with the blessing of icons like Frank Turner, Morrissey, and even Oasis.
‘We’re a big deal now,’ lead singer Thom Rylance declares, grinning at Metro.co.uk as he sits unassumingly in a Wetherspoons in Wigan for our Zoom call.
The group has gained so much traction, they’ve even been named by some outlets as the underdog Oasis Live ’25 support act (an alternative to Blossoms, who coincidentally they have also worked with).
The Lottery Winners are your favourite band’s favourite band and if you haven’t heard of them yet, you’re definitely about to.
They are releasing a brand new album in February (Picture: PR)
The Lottery Winners have toured with some huge names (Picture: Harry Herd/Redferns)
Thom and bassist Katie Lloyd confess the attention is all rather overwhelming, especially from their own personal heroes.
‘I have Noel Gallagher’s number, and Chad Kroeger FaceTimes me sometimes, and it’s weird,’ laughs Thom in disbelief.
Success hasn’t happened overnight, though. Word of mouth has propelled The Lottery Winners into these circles 16 years into their career.
‘We’ve been doing it a long time,’ he continues. ‘We started off playing pubs in Leigh [Manchester] to literally no one and just loved it enough to sacrifice our entire social lives and finances to pursue music as a life and as a career.
‘Luckily, it worked out — we’re in a good position now where it’s working.’
The Lottery Winners — consisting of Thom, Katie, Robert Lally, and Joe Singleton — slogged for over a decade before getting signed in 2020.
Their debut self-titled album landed at number 23 in the UK charts, with the track Love Will Keep Us Together climbing to a similar spot on the singles chart.
It was three years later with the album Anxiety Replacement Therapy that the band burst into more mainstream success, with the hitmakers calling it a ‘key that opened a door’.
Often the music comes from songwriter Thom’s struggles with mental health and ADHD, with a track on the new album simply titled Panic Attack.
He explains they ‘dressed it [up] with a kids choir and brass, and it’s all summery. There’s a juxtaposition of it being really melodic and quite nice and uplifting.
Bassist Katie Lloyd loves to think of them as ‘smile music’ (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
Frontman Thom Rylance revealed he’s got Noel Gallagher’s number (Picture: Thom Rylance)
‘But if you actually peel it back a little bit, there is something darker. It feels like what I’ve had to do for years, which was masking those feelings.’
Returning to his cheeky demeanour, Thom …read more
Source:: Metro
