A weekly music magazine may no longer be a must-purchase for teenagers spoilt by digital overload, but the New Musical Express' annual tour showcasing four breakthrough acts is a different matter.

In fact, tickets for this year's stop in the North West proved so popular that a second date was added to satisfy demand.

And it was the giddy zeal of the youthful audience, open-minded enough to appreciate everything offered up to them, which made a more lasting impression than any of the acts.

The whooping began at about 7.15pm with the first sign of a roadie preparing the stage for those fans of reverb and sweet choruses The Vaccines, the most traditional 'NME style' band and the one most likely to be filling stadiums this time next year.

Relentlessly perky Everything Everything seem too orderly to be proper rock stars but had the crowd clapping along and swaying from the first wonky keyboard motif to the last cheeky harmony.

Next up, the highlight of the evening: Magnetic Man's ribcage-shuddering set, topped off with call-and-response barks from their dreadlocked live MC.

The beats, breaks and that blistering sub-bass, served up by three unassuming men scrunched over laptops, gave the Saturday night party people what they wanted most: the chance to throw some shapes, even if not everyone quite seemed to know how to dance to dubstep.

The usually commanding Alice Glass, singer in final act Crystal Castles, was restricted by crutches after an injury but nevertheless added to the party vibe with her hopping and hollering.

A heroic effort, to match that of the crowd who were still bouncing manically to the Castles' electro thrash nearly four hours after they first gathered.