The Lottery Winners recall Paul Weller ‘moaning’ about following their live show

The Lottery Winners were delighted when Paul Weller “moaned” about following them on a bill.

The ‘Worry’ hitmakers – who recently secured their first number one album with fifth record ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ – will be performing at Manchester’s O2 Apollo in their biggest headline show to date on December 1, and their reputation for an epic live show has left some artists a “bit nervous”.

Frontman Thom Rylance exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “Paul Weller moaning about having to follow us was pretty cool! I thought that was pretty cool (laughs.)

“He’s like, “How am I supposed to go on stage after that?” And he wasn’t moaning to me, he was moaning to a promoter! Which I thought was really good – I mean he was lovely, he was really nice!

“[But] I know he meant it! I was like, that is cool! Obviously, Paul Weller – for him to even know who we are is mental, but for him to feel even a little bit nervous that he’s got to go on stage with us? I thought that was a mindblowing interaction.”

After 15 years together, the Leigh band are making waves, having grown from playing in small pubs to big venues up and down the UK and collaborating with Boy George, Shaun Ryder and Frank Turner on their latest album.

However, the approach they take for their energetic and communucal live shows hasn’t changed.

Thom added: “It’s been the same, it’s just the four of us on stage showing off and being stupid. We’ve never lost that.

“Although, at Albert Hall [in December 2022] we spent a bunch of money on lights and stuff like that and I’m sure it made the show better, but I don’t think it’s what people would remember.

“I think it was the atmosphere in the room and the four of us on stage that made it, not the lights. You know what I mean?”

The group – completed by Katie Lloyd, Rob Lally and Joe Singleton – thrive on the love their get from their fans, and they enjoy getting to respond in turn to create something special.

Thom said: “That is the greatest part of all of this for me, when people are singing the songs. I think Dave Grohl said it that like, you can have a thousand different people singing the same thing for a thousand different meanings.

“I think people find their own ways to relate to the songs. It’s really humbking and beautiful when people come up to me after a gig and say, ‘Oh I’m having this hard time and your song really got me through it’.

“That’s what it’s all about for me. And number trophies (laughs.) And cash!”