Winning the lottery

So last night I went to another gig. In many ways it was just another gig in my fairly long list of gigs. But it wasn't. It was another gig in my shorter list of gigs that have made me think. I was lucky to be at this gig with my friend Mike. This contributed to me thinking about the gig not just as another music experience, but as a celebration of life and the privilege of being able to enjoy it. The band The Lottery Winners have a well documented reputation as an unlucky band. Cancelled record company contracts, pandemic effects on their record releases and touring etc have made them a band that could easily have given up before now. Their latest album has just appeared at number 11 in the charts. It matters not whether such rankings mean anything to music lovers. What matters is what is means to the band and the followers they’ve collected over recent years. I first saw them playing a Sofar Sounds gig in the 2022NQ basement bar in Manchester in 2013. It also had Hawker Reunion and Matthew Grey on the bill and they had and would play Acoustic Amnesty fundraiser gigs that I arranged. The Lottery Winners were therefore somehow connected in my head to the good, local, supportive element of the music scene. The other gigs included them agreeing to play a People’s History Museum fundraiser curated by Sam Duckworth and headlined by Billy Bragg in 2015. They very kindly agreed to let Bragg use their backline equipment when it would have been easier to just load the van and piss off home. Another event that connected them with the good guys of music in my brain. So we now arrive in 2021 with the band hitting that album chart thing. My mate Mike and I coincidentally arrive in Halifax to see them the day after this is achieved. On the way there, we’ve popped into Dukes bar on Mike’s always to be trusted recommendation. It’s a belter and, more importantly, it allows us to catch up and me to be reminded of Mike’s part in some of music’s good times – running a great small pub venue against the odds and putting on gigs including sometimes supporting performers when they were struggling financially as is sadly too often the case these days. This positive reminiscing fuels us (with the beer and pub food!) towards the Piece Hall in Halifax for the gig. I didn’t know what to expect but the venue turns out to be the same Shangrila style marquee set up used in Manchester’s Food and Drink Festival years ago and it’s beautiful. This, coupled with the general brilliance of the Piece Hall courtyard it sits in, with the additions of Xmas décor all around and a sneaky pre gig fag break chat with Tom of the band as we wander in, leads us to the arrival of the band onstage for the gig itself. The sound quality wasn’t the best, possibly because of the beautiful venue marquee’s structure, but it mattered not a jot. What mattered was the emotion of the gig. The band were understandably emotional because of the chart news, and the element of the crowd who knew their journey so far joined in with the emotion too. And rightly so. One key thing about The Lottery Winners is they collect supporters who bond with them. They’re all on the journey together. One of them I chatted to briefly at the bar was a great example. He seemed as pleased and emotional about the occasion as the band. A music night with a mate and a gang of music people who deserve to celebrate the success so far of The Lottery Winners. They’ve had a small lottery win this week and anyone who supports the good guys in music will be hoping they win even bigger soon.