“The initial aim was to provide a platform for some of the best unsigned acts in Manchester, and the response has been fantastic.”

“We’ve had some brilliant new bands performing way before anyone had heard of them, including The Ting Tings, Twisted Wheel and Delphic,” he said.

One year on, the night has gone from strength to strength and Danny’s taken The Aftershow to bi-monthly spots. “Manchester’s on fire, man,” he said. “It hasn’t been this way since the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays. And that was the idea: to find 50 of the best new bands on the scene. By November last year I’d unearthed 700 in Manchester alone. Any other city would have just a fraction.”

I wondered why Danny, who along with his own band has notched up numerous top 10 hits and No 1 albums, needs to take the career u-turn from being a singer in a band to promoting them?

He said: “People think i’m fu**ing mental but I love it. Every time I put a night on it’s one big party.”

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