Looking like a silver-haired Ronnie Corbett, Pete Shelley proudly announced the band's 79th gig of the year. How many, you wonder, since 1977? And how does this longevity fit in with the original punk ethos of spontaneity and disrespect? With the irrepressible Steve Diggle on guitar, Tony Barber on bass and Phil Barker on drums, this line-up has been together for the past six years. And they were soon racing through their brisk and brittle hits, adding tracks from their recent album, Modern.

Still, the number of flying beer cans decreased significantly whenever the next song promised a pre-1980 vintage. There was a rough-and-ready Autonomy, a rasping Breakdown and a sprightly Noise Annoys, prompting air-guitar antics in the crowd. Pioneers of Manchester's punk scene, the Buzzcocks distinguished themselves by writing three-minute speed-ballads which combined the thrashing energy of the Sex Pistols with the whimsy of adolescent yearning.

It's all in the dynamic between Diggle's ostentatiously choppy guitar and Shelley's wry, high-pitched vocals. The latter's fruity nuances are offset by the thunderous rhythm section while the band's harmonies soften near-football chants into sensitive refrains.

Love You More, What Do I Get? and Fiction Romance are classic examples, and they each received a breathless work-out as Shelley's northern camp vied with his sneering Johnny Rotten inflections. The band's punk credentials have always been parodied by their quirky Mancunian humour, yet you wonder if 20 years on the road hasn't worn that crucial layer of irony thin.

For an encore the band offered four of their best: Harmony in My Head, Ever Fallen in Love?, Orgasm Addict and the menacing Boredom, all as raw and cheeky as the day they were conceived. A few heavy-looking blokes stage-dived. One or two shadow-boxed. Others wobbled on their heels. But everyone seemed to remember. Even those who weren't there the first, second or third time around.