The Ting Tings Tickets

It's nothing you'll see on Shameless, but - whisper it - Salford has an artsy underside that is shaping up to be a Northern variant on Warhol's early Factory. Based in a former disused Mill and shrouded by council high-rises, its first breakout stars have emerged. Welcome, if you will, The Ting Tings - the Sonny and Cher of Salford Precinct for the Noughties.

The Ting Tings are Jules de Martino and Katie White. They met when she was just out of being a Wigan school-girl and bonded over a shared ambition to rock the foundations of pop music.

Together, Jules and Katie have configured a sound that represents the pure heart of British pop. Driven by personality, unstoppable momentum, friendship and the love of great pop music - however stylised it arrives - The Ting Tings learnt to forget the attention to detail that they had slaved over in their previous band Dear Eskiimo and drove their new beast on raw adrenaline. It is littered through their debut album We Started Nothing; snappy choruses trade off against angular guitar work, whipsmart drumming and a succession of loops that they create live with the use of delay pedals. Half redolent of a thrusting girlband schooled at CBGBs and half informed by a post modern desire to break the codes of manufactured pop, their sound is immediately identifiable and purposefully perky.

Interesting things to know:

- May 2008 was a GOOD month. The That's Not My Name single and the We Started Nothing album were both number 1 records in the UK.

- The b-side to the That's Not My Name vinyl was a brand new track made up from fans names submitted via a special phone line set up. The track was entitled That's Not My Name: Your Mix.

- Whilst on tour recently the band scattered the US album sleeves on the floor of each stage, set the gear up on top and then performed over them that night. Katie and Jules then customised them, stuck on some gaffa tape, signed them and sold them the following night on the merch stand at the next gig.