The Lottery Winners are back out on the second leg of their KOKO tour bringing the sunshine to the stage with them.
Having been out on tour with Robbie Williams all Summer The Lottery Winners are back to resume their headline sets and this time they have a tour bus!
Cusp
Cusp are a solid three-piece indie-rock band and provide a decent start for tonight. Tom A. Smith came out for the penultimate track, ‘Human Nature,’ that they released together a couple of weeks back. Smith then stayed out to help on a cover version of ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ for the last song. Reading the crowd well they suspected a cover was likely to get a stronger response than an original one. It got a good crowd singalong going.
Tom A. Smith
Whisperings of Tom A. Smith had been reaching our ears for months, all along the lines of, “You have to see this kid live.” He is very young, though much older than he was when he first supported a band at the age of eight! Tonight, he is fronting a full band and concentrating on singing and performing rather than providing any of the guitar himself. There are some very classic indie stylings, though some of the recent EP veers a little bit closer to The Dare in style than the guitar bands of his earlier releases. Overall, there are strong Declan Mckenna vibes – another artist who broke through very young and has built a strong following through hard work and a bit of showmanship. He understands how to connect with an audience with several songs that are quickly made interactive with singable choruses or phrases. There is energy here and it will be interesting to watch him progress.
The Lottery Winners
One day a Lottery Winners gig will start without a feeling of total chaos, but this is not that day. Tonight, Tom has come on without a belt for his trousers and is now in fear that they are about to fall down at a moment’s notice. He asks if anyone in the crowd has one in his size and thirty seconds later a belt is being thrown in the direction of the stage. He asks the rest of his band for some “sexy music” whilst he does a reverse striptease. We are a minute in and already the entertainment and humour that characterises this band are in full flow. We are quickly into ‘Superpower’ and the energy skyrockets.
They have a new single out that is just a few days old in ‘Your Last Song.’ In typical Thom fashion he overshares with us that the record label have been very disappointed with the streaming numbers. Thom says it is okay because he knows most of their audience still have old Nokia flip-phones and like to buy the records on vinyl. This is only a partial exaggeration and part of the reason they have two number one UK albums from the committed early sales they get. Perhaps mocking Vanessa from the record label is not the best move when the song lyrics could be so easily thrown back at them:
“I just called to say I never loved you anyway
I just called to tell you I don’t care
This is your last song
Oh, I let you go, I let you go”
Let us hope Vanessa isn’t singing it to them anytime soon as they really are at their peak right now and we surely need the next album and the inevitable Robbie Williams collaboration (hopefully it will be better than that awful track he has out with Bon Jovi!).
In the interactive crazy world of The Lottery Winners super fan Andy tonight issued Thom with a challenge of using a stylophone during one of the tracks and he did indeed break it out and use it towards the end of the track!
Thom explains that he understands that everyone has their favourite Lottery Winners song and that he feels guilty when he doesn’t play that one during a gig. In an attempt to ease his conscience/be absolved from blame/create comedy they have introduced the gimmick of Thom’s Bola. A number of their songs and additional options are written on small lottery number balls and have been placed within Thom’s Bola. It even has its own ridiculous theme tune.
The ball that comes out has ‘Rob Cover’ on it. Thom says we can gamble up to twice if we want, however there is a lot of love for Rob from within the audience so a Rob cover it is! A few tracks are thrown out as suggestions. Thom picks up on ‘Livin La Vida Loca’ and it seems well rehearsed enough to give a slight whiff of a plant but is such fun we will forgive the potential dishonesty. Rob is a solid presence as a guitarist and part of the team, but this gives us the chance to see him in a whole new light. His Ricky Martin impersonation is so decent you wonder if he ought to be a regular front man for his own side-project.
After this the rest of the band catch a quick breather whilst Thom treats us to an acoustic version of ‘Struggling.’ The song has quickly become a highlight of their cannon. A guy near to the front at the side keeps shouting out. After about the fourth time Thom actually pauses playing and asks him to stop. He does it about as politely as possible, saying that the song means a lot to people and that he finds it incredibly distracting with his ADHD. He resumes and it is a lovely moment, Rob and Katie coming back out to provide harmonies towards the end. Thom thanks for the guy for managing to keep quiet for the rest of it.
‘UFO,’ one of the six singles released prior to KOKO coming out, is turned into a torch phone in the air track. After old favourite ‘Much Better’ Thom asks Katie if he has time to, “Do the thing.” Katie tells him he doesn’t have time but knowing Thom for who he is tells him he may as well still do it. The thing in question is a cover of ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ which perfectly encapsulates the silly yet life-affirming status of this band. The audience confidently belt out parts of it though the “wings come off” towards the end, as Thom puts it.
‘Letter To Myself’ finishes the main part of the set. The band disappear for just seconds, Thom coming straight back and explaining he has been talking too much and they don’t want to shortchange us. The encore is a triple threat of brilliance in ‘Burning House,’ ‘Turn Around’ and ‘Start Again.’ There is no time to get anyone up on stage for ‘Turn Around,’ like they normally do, as time is running away from them.
It has been another wonderful, communal celebration. As Thom says, it is nice for them to “Be the bride again,” having been the bridesmaid for Robbie Williams all Summer. Long may they Keep On Keeping On and making audiences smile.
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