LANCASHIRE indie quartet The Lottery Winners pop over the Pennines to play Fibbers in York tonight on their 16-date World Tour Of The UK, only weeks after music mogul Seymour Stein signed them to a major recording deal.

Formed in Leigh, Greater Manchester by Thom Rylance, Robert Lally, Katie Lloyd and Joe Singleton in their high-school years, the band have progressed from the North West scene to supporting The Wonder Stuff and playing the summer festival circuit.

“The Lottery Winners are currently the very best of UK rock and pop," says The Wonder Stuff's frontman, Miles Hunt. "They have such a great sense of themselves, unlike anything I have seen and heard in contemporary music in a long, long while. They were the obvious choice to open for us on tour. I love'em!"

The Lottery Winners had come together the way many bands do. Best friends since Rylance was elected to show Lally around the new school he would be attending, the two shared a passion for music and could both play guitar and sing. Neither knew anyone with a bass, however, until a few seconds after their Bassist Wanted poster was placed on the noticeboard of Heybrook Music, Leigh’s only guitar shop.

The 15-year-old Katie Lloyd just happened to be in there at that time on that day. The position was duly filled and the line-up was completed when drummer Joe Singleton received a phone call from Katie, his high-school best friend, insisting that he became a Lottery Winner. After declining many times, he finally agreed to take up the drum stool.

Now comes their signing to Sire/Warner Bros. "We can barely believe we're actually doing a proper headline tour," says lead singer Thom Rylance. "Touring is the most exciting thing you could possibly do. The thing that makes us most happy is to play live, and we just can't wait to get in our little red van and discover our wonderful country. We've been working hard on material for the past eight years, and we finally get to show it all off.”

The Lottery Winners' song I Know is being used as the theme song for comedian Greg Davies’s new Channel 4 show Man Down, while another number, Elizabeth, is regularly played during half-time at Manchester United's Old Trafford matches.

I Know, Elizabeth and more buoyant indie pop tunes besides are being set to record by Coldplay and Morrissey producer Danton Supple and will burst into glorious life on Valentine's Day next year.

The recordings are being overseen by Seymour Stein, the American A&R talent spotter responsible for the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and The Ramones and the transatlantic impact of Echo And The Bunnymen and The Smiths.

Tickets for tonight's gig are on sale at ticketweb.co.uk or fibbers.co.uk or on the door from 7.30pm. The support acts will be Bree and The Blueprints.