The Lottery Winners hit jackpot with second UK Number 1 album KOKO

The Lottery Winners hit the jackpot once again, as KOKO (Keep On Keeping On) becomes the band’s second Official Number 1 album. 

The Leigh legends – Thom Rylance, Robert Lally, Katie Lloyd and Joe Singleton – boast the biggest LP in the country this week; matching the chart-topping success of 2023 record Anxiety Replacement Therapy. 

Prior to that, the group enjoyed Official Albums Chart success with their eponymous 2020 debut The Lottery Winners (23), its 2020 follow-up Sounds Of Isolation (61) and 2021’s Something To Leave The House For (11). 

Official Charts presented The Lottery Winners with their Official Number 1 Award at their KOKO Shop; a pop-up store at Leigh’s Spinners Mill complex in Greater Manchester. 

In collaboration with Southsea’s Pie & Vinyl and Bury’s Wax and Beans, two ever-important independent UK record stores, The Lottery Winners’ KOKO Shop served as a multi-purpose retail and performance space throughout the record’s release week; adding an experiential layer to the campaign.

In fact, over 85% of KOKO's first week total is made up of physical sales; thanks in part to their week-long store activation. 

Celebrating the news with Official Charts, The Lottery Winners say: 

"KOKO is the UK’s Official Number 1 album! It’s been a lot of work, but this makes it all worth it. 

"It’s such a whirlwind of emotions. We’re so grateful to everybody to be supporting us and the album. 

"Go back in time and tell 12-year-old us that we’d have two Number 1 albums, it’s amazing. We’re officially a big deal!

"This is for grassroots music. This is for the working class. This is for Leigh. This is for anybody who has a dream – go out there and get it. Make it happen!"

The Lottery Winners pose with their Official Number 1 Album Award for KOKO at Leigh Spinners Mill (credit: @shaolinpete, with thanks to Tony Richards at fourtoes.co.uk)

Congratulating the band on their achievement, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham says: 

"I've been a big fan of The Lottery Winners since they started out playing pubs and clubs around Leigh, and I know the whole town will be proud of them today. 

"Landing a first Number 1 album was brilliant, but to do it again is something properly special. They’re one of the hardest working bands in the business and they deserve every bit of this success."

KOKO also debuts atop both the Official Vinyl Albums Chart and the Official Record Store Chart, making it the most popular album in indie record shops up and down the country this week too.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Carpenter’s former Number 1 album Short N’ Sweet holds steady at Number 2, while Scottish indie-pop icons Deacon Blue send their 11th studio album The Great Western Road to Number 3. It becomes their seventh UK Top 10 album.

Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross says:

"We are really proud of this album and so grateful to everyone who bought it this week, and for your incredible messages about it.

"We can’t wait for you to hear the songs out on the road next week and again later in the year"

Selena Gomez and benny blanco’s first collaboration record I Said I Love You First debuts at Number 4. It becomes Selena’s second UK Top 10 album, following 2020’s Rare (2), and it’s the first Top 10 LP for super-producer Benny Blanco, responsible for some of the biggest pop smashes of the last 20 years, such as Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream.  

Playboi Carti’s Number 1 record MUSIC has had to vacate the top spot this week, but the acclaimed rapper manages a second week inside the Top 10, boosted by the issuing of a deluxe edition SORRY FOR DA WAIT (7).

The Horrors’ first album in eight years Night Life enters the chart at Number 16. It’s the sixth UK Top 40 album for the Southend-formed group. 

Finally, Alex Warren sees his 2024 release You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) enter the Top 40 for the first time, flying 11 places to Number 30.

See the full Official Albums Chart Top 100 here from 5.45pm.