Sleeper / The Lottery Winners, Albert Hall. 30th April 2022

Having come straight from the Blossoms album launch gig at Band on the Wall, walking into Albert Hall with your ears still ringing gives off a definite feeling of shell shock. We’re here early though with good reason, The Lottery Winners are opening and they are not to be missed. Thom is on fine form, if there’s a band with better banter then for god sake don’t shout up, Thom will be after you! They’re not messing about though, they’re here to impress and ‘Little Things’ sounds brilliant as they stretch their legs on a bigger stage. Katy looks to be having a blast, strutting around with her bass. Rob’s got his moves down too. They’re having fun and the enthusiasm drips off the stage infecting the already largely onboard audience. “Who’s not seen us before” asks Thom, before screaming “WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN??”. As they tear through ‘Much Better’ “I Already Feel Much Better” we all do, then unleashing the bouncy ‘Meaning of Life’ the whole of the Albert Hall has never felt more alive. They sound massive in here. ‘Start Again’ gets the sort of response that will have headliners Sleeper a little worried back stage. After a bit of acapella they finish with ‘21’ which already sounds like a Manchester classic. Fair play, they’re on home turf, but it’s a banging set and I’m already thinking “Follow that!” So, to Sleeper. I’m sorry but we’ve got the bands upside down tonight. I saw them run through their debut ‘Smart’ last year and they were good. Tonight though they’re doing the difficult second album ‘The It Girl’. It’s not they sound bad, quite the opposite. They make these songs sound pretty chunky and Louise Wener’s voice is still packed with effortlessly breathless indie cool. ‘Sale of the Century’ still makes you feel like it’s 1996 and ‘What Do I Do Now’ sounds like the closest song to the first collection. As the album goes on though, it does falter a bit for me, with maybe the exception of ‘Nice Guy Eddie’. Admittedly the audience do seem to be up for it though and although it’s not sold out, it’s a decent crowd and the sound in Albert Hall is fantastic as ever. The three sleeper blokes (2 original) are joined by two sleeper girls and I really can’t fault them, they’re solid and let Wener shine in the limelight, helped by a very shimmery silver lamé skirt. When I’m describing what people are wearing though, we’ll that’s not good and I’m quite relieved when we get to the end of the album. They come back for another mini set for the encore, which covers a smattering from the rest of the albums. ‘Vegas’ and ‘Inbetweener’ stand out, as does their cover of ‘Atomic’ which they twist into ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. The tunes are much stronger and it saves the set for sure. The Lottery Winners won though.