Nickelback and The Lottery Winners form an unlikely partnership to cover Oasis live

Thom Rylance of The Lottery Winners performs on stage at the Electric Ballroom on December 10, 2022 in London, England
Thoma Rylance of The Lottery Winners (Image credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns)

We love unexpected collaborations, and this was an especially poignant one. Greater Manchester band The Lottery Winners are supporting Nickelback on tour in the UK right now and when they played their home city at the new AO Arena on 20 May, the two acts got together onstage.

Lottery Winners' frontman Thom Rylance – who we spoke to last year for a pedal and guitar tour alongside guitarist Robert Lally – dedicated the two bands' performance of Oasis's Don't Look Back In Anger to the "22 Manchester Bees". 

These were the victims of the 2017 suicide bombing after an Ariana Grande show at the venue when it was called the Manchester Arena. Noel Gallagher's song became an unofficial anthem of remembrance for the city in the wake of the tragedy. 

The Manchester worker bee has long been a symbol of the city as an industrial centre and became an emblem of remembrance following the incident. 

Rob Laing
Reviews Editor, GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars

Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.