YES, yes, so ear-bleeding noisemongers Crystal Castles are headlining this year’s Shockwaves NME Awards Tour (so much less of a mouthful when they were just the Brats).
But as ever, it’s the support slots that it’s worth getting more excited about — after all, that’s where Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys and, um, Coldplay started out.
Our favourites are Mancunians Everything Everything, (what’s with all the alliterative names? And did no one tell opening act The Vaccines?) whose debut single Suffragette Suffragette set mouths a-drooling, and whose debut album Man Alive, was released in July last year.
Also on the bill are hotly-tipped dubstep types Magnetic Man, whose eponymous debut was released in October and reached number five in the album charts, which may have come as something of a surprise to those who propelled Robbie Williams and Cliff Richard to positions one and three respectively that week.
* Shockwaves NME Awards Tour is at the Manchester Academy 1 on Friday, February 4 and Saturday, February 5. Tickets cost £16.94 and are available on 0161 83211111.
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