LOTTERY WINNERS – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 19.4.25
The Lottery Winners are back in town, and this time on a post album launch mini tour to celebrate their new album ‘Koko’ hitting number one. To quote the band “in the last two months we’ve done 31 shows, 53 interviews, 18 meet and greets, 8 podcasts, 5 TV shows and around 5567 miles”, so with all that leg work promoting the album, the much coveted number one spot truly was well deserved.
For a change it has been nice for me to have picked up the album in advance of a show and listen to it, listening to it I did…. a lot! It’s an excellent album, one that again has guest spots from other artists such as Reverend and the Makers, Frank Turner and Shed Seven. The album has a running theme of “Keep on Keeping on”, it is positivity distilled into its purest form. There is a real buzz in the air this evening, reminding me of how electric it was when they played at Chalk last year.
So let’s get on to the gig itself, I got myself down to Resident nice and early, 5:45pm to be exact and there was already a fair size queue, one that stretched to the very end of Kensington Gardens by 6:45pm when we were finally filtered in, this one has been long sold out and was going to be a tight fit.
The band came out at 7:15pm to huge applause, lead vocalist Thom chanting “I’m Famous” as he arrived. “Hello, this is weird isn’t it, we are a two time number one album band, and you would have thought we’d be playing massive venues, this is better though isn’t it, noo nooo, I’m only joking, I prefer it when it’s shit” he continued “We are going to play some songs, it’s beautiful to be here in Brighton, a big shout out to Resident Records, I can’t find any of our records, it was the first thing I looked for when arrived, you must have bought them all”.
The first song was ‘Worry’, an absolute belter from their 2023 album ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’, the set up tonight was slightly more acoustic than say one of their bigger shows with Thom using an acoustic guitar, the rest of the band’s instruments also seemed to be brought down a notch, Katie’s bass guitar, Roberts electric guitar and Joe’s drum kit, so much so, I didn’t need my ear plugs, it definitely made it feel nice and intimate.
After some banter with a chap called Clive who was a bit vocal in the crowd, Thom said he didn’t know what else to say asking Katie “Catherine would you like to say something”, prompting Katie to say “don’t use my telling off name”. Before she could speak, the Clive chap shouted out she was the number one singer in the band, prompting Thom to jokingly say he was the worst member in the audience, he then joked about the shop having some lovely merchandise. So nice that he’d decided to just take a top and wear it and encouraged everyone to take what they want and run for it. He apologised and said he was feeling very naughty tonight, cracking jokes left right and centre, he mentioned that no-one ever films the good ones for him to then use online afterwards. He then relayed a story from another gig prompting cheers and applause, Robert joked “and then we have to stand here while he tells these stories over and over again”.
With the banter over we were into a song from the new album called ‘You Again’. This is the one that features Reverend & the Makers on the album, but had Thom singing those parts this time round, towards the end of the song Thom shouted “right everyone, now in French”, and sang part of it jokingly in French, then he shouted now in German and shouted the chorus. This song though is another fantastic track, one that you want to sing-along to. Now, I’ve been to quite a few instore gigs at Resident, but never one where the crowd are all singing along to all of the chorus and dancing about, like I said before there was real electricity in the air tonight, fun and naughtiness were in full flow.
Before ‘Letter To Myself’ Thom turned his back to the audience and fiddled with his phone “oh Robbie Williams has texted me, just letting you know” he carried on “yeah I’ll call you later” whispering “no you hang up, I’ll speak to you later when I stop being famous”. This was in reference to the fact that The Lottery Winners in a matter of weeks will be touring supporting Robbie Williams around stadiums around the world, something that just makes you really appreciate seeing such brilliant artists such as this in a nice intimate venue. During the song Thom held up the UK number one album chart trophy, saying they’ve not had the new one yet and the one they had to hold up for the press photos had Lewis Capaldi on it, he told the crowd it was a much ours as it was his….well more his he added.
As Thom passed the trophy out into the audience he joked “Oh it’s Robbie again on the phone, right what are we doing now” acting confused, “A gig, not texting” Robert snapped back, causing another wave of laughter. “Does anyone have any requests, of course I’m going to be selective with my hearing and play the one I want to”. Robert said “be quiet to the crowd, it’s UFO”, Thom added “it’s off our number one album you know”, he introduced the song saying that “when you are at school you should be yourself, don’t change, it’s not your problem, it’s others to accept you”. The crowd again all echoing and singing the chorus. It’s a beautiful song, a slower number, touching lyrics, halfway through Thom swapped guitars with Robert saying he was going to rip a fat solo, which he did. When he finished he joked “God, it is this what it’s like standing over here, I don’t like that” as in only centre stage is good enough for him, Robert was quick with a retort, “Sorry, I’ve got Robbie Williams on the phone over here”.
For the next song, Thom introduced his friend Ross who was going to join them for the next song and play the guitar even though he only learnt it and practiced it last night for the first time, Thom joked “no microphone for him”, he picked up a sheet of paper on the counter asking Ross if it was his little chord sheet and then promptly screwed it up and threw it in to the audience saying “I’m the nicest person in rock since Dave Grohl, who left the door wide open for me”. He told Ross he was joking and got the paper back.
The next song required audience participation as everyone was put through their paces with, “Left, right, side to side, then point, then turnaround, then four claps”, the song was ‘Turn Around’ another from ‘Koko’. It was fun and great to see literally everyone in Resident do the dance and singing along, whilst poor Ross got scolded by Thom. He joked this must have surely been the first choreographed dance performed in the shop.
We were told there was just time for one or two more and we could shout out and vote. The crowd favourites put forward were ‘Super Power’,’ Three Wishes’ or a random cover song, Thome joked ‘Angels’ and he’d just give Robbie a call to get permission, another was added to the choices namely ‘21’ from their 2020 self-titled album, the audience shouted and on the cheer’o’meter. ‘21’ got the vote, which was played at a slightly faster than usual pace by a perplexed looking Joe on drums at the request of Thom, what with the acoustic vibe and fast pace Thom joked it sounded more Johnny Cash, the last rendition of the chorus was changed to “We are Number one”. There is such love and banter between the band when performing, you can’t help but smile whilst watching this band.
Just as Thom was starting the next song, a cheer went up after the first chord, he stopped and said it was like stars in the eyes and he wanted everyone to do it once he starts playing, after some banter of who he will be tonight, he jokingly played the start of Robbie Williams ‘Angels’, but egged on by the crowd, he and the band played most of the song before breaking into ‘Start Again’, another early big hitter from the band prompting more singing along from the crowd. Thom joked he sounded like Lulu at the end, Robert said “what did you say you sound like Lulu, weeeeyylllll”, another pun for the night. A short snippet of Crowded House ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ was slipped in by Thom before the final song of what ended up being a 52 minute set was the ‘Burning House’ one that tends to be the closer for a lot of their sets, a true building number, one that really rouses the crowd to sing along and give it their all.
“Thank you for coming to tonight, supporting us, supporting independent record stores and getting us our 2nd number one album” bellowed Thom during all the applause. Chants of “one more song” followed, but we’d already gone over the allotted time and it was no doubt going to take some time to get through the huge line for the signing, meeting and greeting, even myself I had 3 different copies of the album, the Dinked LP, regular CD and the Acoustic CD. I can’t think of another album that has had so many variants put out. The band of course happily signed them all and posed for pictures. What a night, what a crowd, what a band, whilst I love my intimate gigs, a band like this deserves to be playing to huge audiences, the fun, the endless jokes and banter and darn fine music bring joy to your heart and soul, I suspect next time the play Brighton it will be at the biggest venue we have to offer, however in the meantime before their Robbie William tour, you can catch them playing a special charity show on 23rd May at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, where all profits for the show will go towards raising money for the Supajam Foundation – Grab your tickets HERE.
The Lottery Winners:
Thom Rylance – vocals/acoustic guitar
Katie Lloyd – bass guitar/vocals
Robert Lally – guitar
Joe Singleton – drums
The Lottery Winners setlist:
‘Worry’ (from 2023 ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ album)
‘You Again’ (from 2025 ‘Koko’ Album)
‘Letter To Myself’ (from 2023 ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ album)
‘UFO’ (from 2025 ‘Koko’ Album)
‘Turn Around’ (from 2025 ‘Koko’ album)
‘21’ (from 2020 ‘The Lottery Winners’ album)
‘Angels’ (Robbie Williams cover)
‘Start Again’ (From 2021 ‘Start Again’ EP)
‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ (Crowded House cover)
‘Burning House’ (from 2023 ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ album)
