Along with all the panels, seminars and masterclasses live music from upcoming artists was a big part of BBC Music Introducing Live and this was highlighted by two ‘headline’ events.

One was a night of dance music broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on Friday 1st November headlined by Annie Mac and Pete Tong but also featuring newer DJs like Jaguar, Sorley and Prospa.

The other was a live bands night headlined by Catfish And The Bottlemen who have gone on to great success since coming up through Introducing along with upcoming artist Zuzu and the somewhat ungoogleable two-piece, John.

The guitar and drums duo started things off with a blast of aggressive positivity reminiscent of IDLES and Fontaines DC that, despite being just men (both with the same first name), easily sounded like four for the most part thanks to what seemed to be some nicely busy drumming and great guitar work, including a judicious use of delay.

Drummer and vocalist John did a great job playing up to the crowd who, largely being there for the headliners, very much weren’t the sort they’d be used to playing too or who would be accustomed to their more abrasive style of indie punk and while they didn’t get the raging maelstrom of a mosh their music deserves it was clear they still went down well and likely won some new fans.

With a smattering of politics, which felt played down somewhat given the event, John added themselves to the list of new bands taking old cliches of indie and punk rock and adding their own off kilter twist as it was evident here they were bending conventions of the tried and tested form, whether by chance or design, excellently — now how the hell do I find them online!?

As something of a contrast Zuzu and offered an instantly more poppy proposition but combined it with something of the classic American indie sound which provided a nice contrast to her very Liverpudlian accent and down to Earth, ‘sassy’ (for wont of a better word) attitude between the songs.

With a big sound and good, funky grooves the band trod the line between pop and something more authentic brilliantly and a couple of songs in I could easily picture them playing big festival stages next summer and going down a storm which they certainly did tonight and left me thinking this is exactly the sort of pop the world needs more of.

Despite being one of BBC Introducing’s biggest acts I have to admit the charms of Catfish And The Bottlemen had, so far, passed me by but, as they were greeted by a huge response here with a definite ‘pop audience’ kind of tone I’m less than used to, I hoped to be won over.

As they blasted through a set of perfectly poised rocking pop bangers it was hard not to be swept along by the sound and atmosphere they created that included the audience singing back so loud at points they even drowned out the band!

While it was all a bit clean cut for me there was no denying the positivity being produced amongst the crowd and it was hard not to be carried away in that as they headed to a big wall of noise finale and created a summer outdoor festival feel inside on a wet and windy Halloween night.

With three varied bands at different stages of their career this show did a great job of encapsulating the work of BBC Music Introducing from giving a platform to largely unknown new bands and helping them on their journey to, potentially, the level of the likes of the headliners here who now tour the world and have even ‘broken’ America, all after first getting heard by their local BBC Introducing show a few years ago.