The beloved Lottery Winners of Leigh have announced their new album, featuring some seriously exciting collaborators, along with a trio of massive Manchester shows.
Flying the flag for the local hamlet and borough of Wigan as a whole since 2008, The Lottery Winners’ rise over the past few years has been a joy to watch, earning their first number-one record with A.R.T back in May 2023, headlining multiple festivals and supporting some seriously big names on tour.
Now, following on from that theme, the announcement of the fourth studio album is also accompanied by a fair few famous faces lending their musical talents to the project as well, already declaring this next chapter “without doubt our best ever work.”
Big words you can’t help but get excited about – especially given that they’re doing not one, not two but three Manc gigs. Roll on 2025.
The Greater Manchester band have just released the first single, ‘You Again’, featuring Sheffield favourite and Day Fever festival co-creator Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers – it’s a really uplifting and reminiscent indie banger, by the way – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Teasing some of the other collaborators who have worked on the new album, simply entitled KOKO (i.e. Keep On Keeping On), fans can expect the return of Frank Turner for a third time on a Lottery Winners record, fellow Northern icons Shed Seven and, get this: Chad Kroeger of Nickelback…
Unreal, we know.
The four-piece supported the Canadian rockstars on their European tour and even joined them on stage for an epic Oasis cover when they landed here at the AO Arena this past May, so we already knew they were good friends – we just didn’t expect to hear Chad confirmed as a featured artist.
Sadly, the song he features on isn’t called ‘KOKO-graph’. A missed opportunity, we know.
It’s unclear as to whether they have any other surprise up their sleeves before the album drops early next year but we’ll settle for this being plenty, to be honest. As mentioned, not unlike the now sold-out Blossoms gigs, they all announced a mini-Manchester residency and none other than Academy 1.
Dubbing the run of shows the ‘Burning House Party’ in honour of their much-loved single from last year, they’ll be playing what is Manc live music rite of passage, they’ll be closing out what has been an incredible 2024 for them with three special sets on December 27, 28 and 29.
KOKO is set to release on 21 February 2025 via the ever-growing Modern Sky record label and general admission for The Lottery Winners’ Burning House Party shows go live this Friday, 27 September at 10am, but you can access pre-sale by pre-ordering the new album now.
A huge record fair is coming to Manchester city centre this bank holiday
Thomas Melia
There’s a record fair making its way to Manchester next weekend, and it’s taking over one of Manchester’s iconic live music venues.
Record lovers and music fanatics this one’s for you.
Whether you’re after growing your own record collection back home, or showing off your DJ skills, this event has everything you could ever ask for.
The Very Good Plus record fair is arriving in Manchester city centre, and it’s coming to none other than independent live music venue, New Century.
You’ll be able to browse through some of the best vinyl in the region and hopefully spot some releases by some of your musical icons.
There’s even family-friendly stations which give little ones and grown-ups alike the chance to try their hand at making and designing their own record sleeve, as well as getting stuck in with a screen-printing workshop.
A record fair event is taking place at Manchester music venue New Century and NOMA this bank holiday / Credit: The Manc Group
If you cant find any LPs you’re after, you’ll definitely find a caffeinated drink or two at Sadler’s Yard and even have a go at creating your own track on the open decks.
There will be a variety of food and drink options, as well as some food for the soul too, thanks to an array of DJ sets running until the evening courtesy of Ded Luvly on a Pulp Coffee sound system.
Live music lovers can rejoice as just for this record fair event, they’ll be able to roam around this huge gig space and if you head downstairs there’ll be a DJ workshop and sound system experience taking place.
This music-oriented event is a collaboration between iconic music venue New Century, city centre neighbourhood NOMA, and DJ and music aficionado, Living Room Dance Club.
So get ready to dig through the crates, create a few demos of your own, design an album cover or two and enrich yourself in all things music because this event has it all.
The Very Good Plus record fair is coming to NOMA and New Century in Manchester on Saturday 23 August from 11am until 6pm, and it’s completely free – apart from all the money you spend on some good quality vinyl, of course.
Featured Images – Jamakassi via Unsplash/ Phillip Blocker via Unsplash
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My Chemical Romance fans are losing it as emo favourites appear to tease UK tour
Danny Jones
American alt-rock and emo favourites My Chemical Romance aren’t just back for one last Black Parade; it looks like they might be heading to the UK for more tour dates.
Not just a phase, never was.
My Chemical Romance (an entirely different kind of MCR) made yet another mighty return to the fore earlier this year, nearly two whole decades on from the release of the seminal album, which dropped in 2006 and has now been toured live again by the New Jersey band.
Playing the album IN FULL for the first time in years, they’ve been busy in North America delighting die-hard crowds, but now a recent teaser has got My Chem fans gearing up for UK and Ireland shows.
As you can see, MCR released the somewhat cryptic comedy sketch above, in which they seem to spoof a gameshow centred around a robot named ‘Quizzo’.
The host of this fictional programme goes on to explain that the result will determine “who will be the next lucky country to win the grand prize of one nuclear winter.”
It might only last for a few seconds, but the main takeaway is that the ‘who’ selected as the recipient of this upcoming prize is none other than the United Kingdom.
Combine that with a simple caption that reads, “Let’s show them what they’ve won”, it’d be hard not to jump to the conclusion that we Brits are about to pretend we’re ‘Teenagers’ again and chant ‘Na Na Na’ until our lungs give out.
In the time since the post went live, fans on this side of the pond have understandably started getting very excited…
My Chemical Romance are coming back to the UK… For the 1st time since 2022 when we all thought it would be the last hurrah…#MCRpic.twitter.com/vHWO5mK89j
At first, some were wondering whether this year’s revival might have also seen the resurrection of their much-mythologised but ultimately scrapped 2019 record, The Paper Kingdom, but it seems pretty much nailed on that their transatlantic followers are about to get some gigs.
It remains unclear whether these still TBC dates will be an extension of the current ‘Long Live The Black Parade‘ tour, which began on 11 July, or something new entirely.
Either way, with this current run of shows due to end in September and hints at a ‘nuclear winter’, it’s a fair assumption to guess that My Chemical Romance will be coming to the UK either later this year or early 2026 – and you bank on a big Manchester booking to be thrown in there too.
Danny Jones -
23rd September 2024 
