The Lottery Winners look forward to massive show supporting Noel Gallagher at Wigan's Robin Park this summer

But that’s what Leigh four-piece band The Lottery Winners will be doing after being personally selected as the main support act for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds for their show at Wigan’s Robin Park on July 18, making it an all-Greater Manchester affair.

For the band’s chief songwriter Thom Rylance, it’s a dream come true.

He said: “Oasis are a very important band for anyone, but more so for us as people from a working class town in the north-west. We grew up with Oasis. It's heroic.

“We're in this amazing position now where it's happening more and more frequently that we're meeting and even working with our heroes. We don't take that for granted, it's a really big deal for us.

“I'm friends with Noel now, which is the weirdest thing in the world. I have so many "pinch me" moments, when my phone lights up and it says Noel Gallagher.

"We met him at a festival, and I had this moment in my life where I found myself watching Johnny Marr on a stage that I'd just played on, next to Noel Gallagher. I never thought this would happen when I was getting thrown out of school at the age of 12 and told that I'd never amount to anything.

“I ended up starting a conversation with Noel, we were making each other laugh, I was even taking the mick out of him a little bit and I think he liked that. Now I can send him songs and ask what he thinks.”

But Thom added: “I don't want everyone to think we were chosen as the support act just because we're mates, we're also very very good. That's why he likes us, because he doesn't tolerate bad music, that's one of the best things about him.”

Noel Gallagher is only the latest A-lister to have been drawn into the orbit of The Lottery Winners. Last year the band celebrated their first Number One album with Anxiety Replacement Therapy, which featured appearances by the likes of Shaun Ryder and Boy George.

“Because of all the icons we surround ourselves with so regularly, we're now icons ourselves,” said Thom, only half-jokingly.

Wigan bands The Lathums and Stanleys are also lined up to play at the series of concerts taking place at the Robin Park Arena in July, with the top draw being local lad Richard Ashcroft playing his first major gig in the town since the legendary concert by his band The Verve at Haigh Hall in 1998.

Lottery Winners bassist Katie Lloyd said: “There's a healthy music scene in Wigan, it's nice that everybody is doing well from up here.

“There's a rivalry with Leigh but it's very tongue in cheek.

"This show will be a big one. It's going to be special because it's local.”

Thom added: “The only thing we ever want from our shows is that people feel just a little bit happier than they did before. We'll play our – I'm not going to say hits because we don't have any of them – but we'll play all the songs that should have been hits.”

Now that they’re able to count such big names among their admirers, and have had a Number One album, are there any ambitions left?

Thom said: “Supporting Noel Gallagher will be a landmark moment for us, but one of our big ambitions is to headline Leigh Sports Village stadium. I'd really like to do that.”