Keeping the faith and facing the future, Times Are Changing puts a full stop on pandemic talk for unstoppable indie-pop four-piece Lottery Winners, as the band releases the fizzing anthem into a newly optimistic world. The first single from their newly announced, upcoming, second studio album, Something To Leave The House For, the band has penned the soundtrack to hugging old friends, the rebirth of live music and those summer festivals just around the around the corner.
For front man and songwriter, Thom Rylance, working through the darkness of Covid meant surviving Covid, tying the threads of an unravelling mental state into a new body of work now emerging as bright, arms-aloft bursts of positivity. His famed ‘note to self’, the emotive An Open Letter To Creatives and the band’s sensational, viral collaboration with Nickelback with the Rock Star Sea Shanty were just two moments of levity in a time dominated by the dark clouds forming overhead. Now he and the band are moving on and moving up.
“If something so bleak and harrowing can hit us all, totally out of the blue, and change our lives, then by definition that must mean that something beautiful can too.” says bassist and vocalist, Katie Lloyd (bass and vocals) as Lottery Winners start the next leg of their adventure with Times Are Changing, reflective, ready to party and no less ambitious than before.
Their mammoth, 14-track new album, Something To Leave The House For, follows their 2020, self-titled UK Album Chart Top 30 debut with a Fri 24 September 2021 release via Modern Sky UK, promises to document the tumultuous times and the path back from despair. In true Lottery Winners style, every truth and life lesson is dressed in glass-half-full, wildly optimistic, radio-friendly pop, hip-swinging beats and bittersweet tenderness.
Looking firmly ahead to brighter, louder and more celebratory times with their fans, Lottery Winners announced new and rescheduled 2021 UK Tour dates earlier this year, including a big, postponed night at Manchester’s O2 Ritz, a run of big stage festival appearances and supporting Kaiser Chiefs at Cardiff Castle. The full run of upcoming headline and festival shows are as follows:
August 2021
- Sat 12 Jun Manchester O2 Academy (socially distanced show)
- Fri 25 Jun Sheffield, Tramlines Festival
- Sat 30 June Kendal, Kendal Calling,
- Fri 6 Aug Lincolnshire, Beyond The Woods Festival
- Fri 13 Aug The Boof Festival
- Sat 14 Aug Cardiff Castle (supporting Kaiser Chiefs)
- Sun 22 Aug Devon, Beautiful Days Festival
- Fri 22 Aug Portsmouth, Victorious Festival
- Sun 29 Aug Bolton, Food and Drink Festival
September 2021
- Wed 1 Sep Brighton, The Prince Albert
- Thu 2 Sep Southampton, Joiners
- Fri 3 Sep Birmingham, Castle and Falcon
- Sat 4 Sep Lancashire, Highest Point Festival
- Sun 5 Sep Nottingham, Bodega
- Tue 7 Sep Bristol, Thekla
- Wed 8 Sep Leeds, Key Club
- Thu 9 Sep Blackpool, Bootleg Social
- Fri 10 Sep Wigan, The Boulevard
- Sat 11 Sep Stoke, Sugarmill
- Fri 17 Sep Manchester, Food and Drink Festival
- Sat 18 Sep London, The Roundhouse (supporting Frank Turner)
- Wed 22 Sep Milton Keynes, Crauford Arms
- Thu 23 Sep London, Oslo
- Sat 25 Sep O2 Ritz, Manchester
- Thu 30 Sep Sheffield, The Leadmill
October 2021
- Sat 2 Oct Liverpool, Sound City
- Sat 9 Oct Stockton-on-Tees, NE Volume
- Fri 22 Oct Macclesfield, Suburban Hymns Festival (main stage)
- Sat 23 Oct Newcastle, Hit the North Festival (main stage)
- Sat 11 Dec Birmingham, Sonic Wave Festival (main stage)
Remaining tickets for all dates and more live opportunities to be announced via the band’s website at www.thelotterywinners.co.uk and their social media channels.
Joining Rylance (vocals/guitar) and Lloyd in Lottery Winners are Robert Lally (guitars) and Joe Singleton (drums). Releasing their debut, self-titled album just as the pandemic hit, slowing their determined rise through their high-octane live shows, the band refused to be stopped altogether. Working out of their home studios in Leigh, Greater Manchester, they continued to fill the world with their own brand of musical colour with online performances, events and new releases.
The band’s restlessness threw them back together with long-term collaborator, the producer Tristan Ivemy, pulling together the Start Again EP, featuring a Frank Turner-guesting title track and further appearances from Sleeper’s Louise Wener and The Wonder Stuff’s Miles Hunt. Lottery Winners’ industrious nature has won them over ten million streams in the past year and count almost 300,000 monthly Spotify listeners into their expanding family of fans.
As if that wasn’t enough Lottery Winners also busied themselves with their own TV series, LWTV, broadcast every Sunday, with special guest appearances from heroes including Rick Astley, Andy Burnham, Jamie Cullum and Happy Mondays’ Rowetta.
