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The Lottery Winners bring out ‘Boy George’, Bez and Jon McClure as special guests at Manchester residency
They always have surprises up their sleeve.
Danny Jones -
30th December 2024 
It’s been an absolutely unreal 12 months for The Lottery Winners and to top it all, they rounded out the year in style by bringing out not one, not two, but three UK music icons for their recent run of Manchester gigs: ‘Boy George’, Bez from Happy Mondays and the Reverend himself, Jon McClure.
The high-flying indie pop group and local legends from Leigh toasted an unbelievable 2024 with their ‘Burning House Party’ residency, playing three consecutive nights at Manchester Academy.
Better yet, with their new album KOKO (Keep On Keeping On) set to release in the new year with several tracks including some rather big feature artists once again, they decided to bring out a few of those famous faces as special guests this past weekend.
The Greater Manchester band genuinely caught everyone by surprise when guitarist Robert Lally did the classic Stars In Their Eyes walk-off and was reintroduced as Boy George himself.
‘Boy George’ and Bez join Lottery Winners on stage
Well played indeed.
The former Culture Club lead singer went on to perform alongside the Wigan outfit as they played their track, ‘Let Me Down‘. Well, not really… it turned out to be his very talented lookalike ‘Boy Gorgeous’ but ah well, still a crowd-pleaser nonetheless.
As mentioned, Boy George is just one of many impressive feature artists that The Lottery Winners have notched over the past year or so, having previously worked with Frank Turner, KT Tunstall and even fellow Manc, Shaun Ryder.
The Happy Mondays star featured in the music video for their song ‘Money’ on their last record, ART (Anxiety Replacement Therapy), and was arguably their biggest coup to date next to Turner, who has now worked on several tracks with the four-piece and played live with them on multiple occasions.
As another surprise on night two at Manchester Academy, frontman Thom Rylance might not have been able to bring out Ryder in the flesh, but he did rope in some hype-man help from long-standing band partner and best mate Bez to delight the crowd and shake his trademark maracas throughout.
Lottery Winners Keep On collabing
But it doesn’t stop there either.
Set to release in February, their upcoming fourth LP will not only see the return of Frank Turner for his third studio collaboration with the band, but they’re adding even more names into the Northern music mix for this latest record.
As well as songs featuring Rick Witter of Shed Seven and even Chad Kroeger of Nickleback (yes, we said Nickelback) their lead single also features Sheffield favourite Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers.
Their uplifting track ‘You Again’ has enjoyed plenty of radio play since it was released back in September and the Yorkshireman also made an appearance during their city centre residency.
You just have to love these scenes.
Read more:
- Rowetta and Happy Mondays have parted ways after 34 years
- Shayne Ward surprises Altrincham locals with a festive sing-song during Christmas karaoke
- The best albums of the year, according to Audio North | 2024
These lot have such a lovely, collaborative thing going on are we are absolutely here for it.
As if things weren’t massive enough already, having supported massive bands like Nickelback and headlining festivals like Kendal Calling this year, 2025 looks set to get even bigger for the gang with a potentially game-changing support slot.
Announcing his massive UK and European tour in the wake of his new biopic being released, British pop veteran and global chart-topper Robbie Williams confirmed Lottery Winners will be his warm-up act for every single date bar Amsterdam come next summer.
Leigh’s very own and well and truly on the up and it’s a pleasure being along to watch the ride.
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Featured Images — John Baldwin Photography/Sam McMahon/Reverend and the Makers (via IG)
