Massive

Danny

Didsbury born Danny is the middle-class foil to Gorton ghetto lad Seamus. He was geekier than Shay when they first met at the tender age of 12 - and he still is now.

Occasionally in awe of his best mate's swagger, and always aware of his own bourgeois beginnings, Danny is nonetheless tenacious in his band tastes. And if we're absolutely honest, knows even more about music than his best mate.

Ever enthusiastic and just a tad naïve, he's exactly what's needed to kick start Shady Music. If only Danny can get past Shay's arty mood swings, and stop interfering with the talent, he might have the next Factory Records on his hands.

Shay

Shay doesn't work at being cool, he was just born that way: the strut, the skinny jeans, the drawl - he has them all. As pretentious as Danny is pragmatic, he hates Coldplay and swears his Shania Twain record is for ironic use only. But scratch the surface and you realise he secretly needs Danny as much as Danny needs him.

Shay was the first of the Finnegan family to hold down a proper job, and is too smart to go the same way as his petty criminal father. Though always nonchalant, Shay really cares about this record label. Music is art, and he's in it for all the right reasons. If it happens to attract the birds too, that's a bonus.

Tony

Shay's dad Tony is a petty criminal with hidden depths. When he's not nicking his son's last twenty or next door's satellite dish, he deals with Shay's sulking, wife Lorraine's drinking habits and offers life guidance to Danny's dad.

Shay's love of music comes from his parents. Tony and Lorraine toured the Manchester pub circuit in the Seventies, and while their double-act was ill-fated there remains a fair dollop of spice in their marriage.

Tony can most often be found aiding and abetting Manchester master criminal Big Stu or enjoying the ambience of The White Horse.

Manny Westside

Celebrity dance producer Manny Westside is making a comeback. After a spell chilling in India with his yogi, London-born Manny is itching to start knob-twiddling again.

Manny thinks HearKittyKitty are mad grimy (whatever that means)... he wants to get in on the Shady act! Question is, can he stay off the cocaine long enough to help deliver the mix the record label need for a hit?

Lou

Lou is Manchester's foremost music critic. Quick-witted and even quicker talking, what she doesn't know about the scene isn't worth knowing.

Lou alternately mothers the lads and kicks them up the a**e. If truth be told, most of their triumphs stem from her advice and brimming contacts book, but as long as they're living the dream - and she has a steady supply of new bass-players to flirt with - she's happy.

Lorraine

Lorraine loves the two men in her life; husband Tony and son Shay. But she also harbours another passion: Strongbow. More often than not, this becomes a messy affair; from inadvertently stage-diving at Shady Music's Battle of the Bands to stealing booze from the church, Tony has his hands full keeping an eye on her.

Swing

Swing writes gangsta rap and works in Comet. Mates with Danny and Shay since way back when, he's fully supportive of their music venture.

However, when it becomes clear "You're A Ho" is not going to get him signed to Shady, Swing turns his attention to another matter close to his heart: Nancy from the coffee shop. All he has to do now is pluck up the courage to talk to her...

Most of his dates with Nancy are a total disaster - but at least he keeps himself armed with hundreds of facts and stats to try and keep the conversation flowing!

Strange Pete

Strange Pete is a casualty of the heady days of the Madchester scene. Still mourning the loss of his own Nineties Manc explosion band, the Ocelots, Pete's never seen without his beloved guitar Janice.

Mostly too bonced to know what Shay and Danny are doing, he's nevertheless constantly on hand to partake in the label's various adventures.

Tina Simpson

Tina is one half of HearKittyKitty. She works in Manchester's Superb'uns bakery with her sister and band-mate Marie.

Regularly seen around town drinking Lambrini (and doing the dance), the blunt and crude Tina and Marie arrive at Shady headquarters armed only with a boom-box and a couple of goose-bump inducing voices. They're soon hired.

It isn't long before Tina starts to show a penchant for label boss Danny - but he is a little un-sure of her as she is, politely putting it, 'large'.

Don't ever mention to Tina that she doesn't look like her sister - she's not adopted, got it!?

Marie Simpson

Marie is the other half of Droylsden duo HearKittyKitty.

Marie's time is divided between potato-based junk food and a constant battle with her bowels. If the lads can make a hit out of Marie and Tina, they've got more gumption than they think!

Marie is just as crude as her sister - if not more so. No topic is off-limits for discussion, as one rather shocked journalist soon finds out.

Nancy

Wide-eyed and waif-like, Nancy works in the lads' favourite coffee shop.

Swing is besotted with her, but thinks he doesn't stand a chance. Nancy's smitten but too shy to make a move. Will they ever get it together?

Nico

Martial arts enthusiast Nico is a photographer to the stars. From Ryan Giggs to Rihanna, he's worked with the cream of the celeb world. His new assignment is to scrub up the HearKittyKitty girls - but will they respond to his unusual methods?

Zora

Macedonian widow Zora arrives in Manchester with high hopes of a career in catering. Little does she know that Big Stu has more ominous plans in mind.

When Danny and Shay are charged with her care she strikes up a close friendship with Swing, and even offers to help him ensnare Nancy.

Tommy Sadoski

American Anglophile Tommy Sadoski is a lawyer with a penchant for pork pies and some very bad news for Shady Music. He arrives at the office in the midst of 'getting his Brit on' and upsets the lads by thinking Manchester is a suburb of Liverpool.

It's going to take some serious groundwork from Danny to save the label from Tommy's biggest client.

Ricky Lisberg

Washed up A&R scout, Ricky Lisberg, is jealous of Shady Music's stable of artists. He needs to make a successful signing soon or he's bound for the chop.

Ricky is willing to try anything and everything to get HearKittyKitty to jump to his label - he is not beyond pretending to be a reporter or acting camp to get what he needs.

Ricky can often he found hanging out in his car reading a book - his reading material is things like Depression For Dummies and 1,000,000 Motivation Quotes For Success.