NEW Yorkers The Drums certainly brought some much-needed warmth to a freezing Manchester on Monday.

The cheap beer probably didn’t help raise the body heat, but it helped fuel the mainly student audience into a minor frenzy as the indie-popsters plugged their much-acclaimed debut album.

Manchester has its own rich history of musical heroes and The Drums have clearly been listening from across the Atlantic.

Singer Jonathan Pierce preened and pranced his way around the stage like Morrissey in his pomp — there was even a bit of stage diving and people being held aloft on shoulders.

Musically tight as a, erm, drum, the band wears its influences on its collective sleeves. The Smiths, New Order, Orange Juice — a veritable who’s who of jangly pre-Britpop Brit pop.

And you wouldn’t have known guitarist Adam Kessler left the band in September as his replacement (sorry — I can’t tell you his name) perfectly replicated his distinctive single string riffs, sharp as the frost outside.

Highlights included opener Best Friend, Let’s Go Surfing and The Future.

Talking of the future, it looks very bright for The Drums right now.

By the time they return to these shores to promote their second album, the Academy probably won’t be big enough.