MANCHESTER alternative rock band Puppet Rebellion are due to release their debut album later this month.

The five-piece have been a regular presence on the city’s indie scene for a number of years now, but are hoping that their first full studio album, titled ‘Chemical Friends’, can catapult them to national stardom.

The 12-track record will be released on Friday, November 17, and includes the single ‘The Pact’, which was premiered on Dermot O’Leary’s BBC Radio 2 show last year, and has even featured on the half-time playlist at Old Trafford.

The band’s bassist James Halliwell, aged 29, is a former pupil at Deane School, now Ladybridge High School, in Bolton.

Halliwell, who lives in Westhoughton, started playing the guitar aged 15, and is joined in Puppet Rebellion by Oliver Davies (vocals), David Wimbush (guitar), Craig Gibson (guitar), and Henry Rogers (drums).

Since their formation in 2013, the band have released three EPs, and their latest offering sees them team up with producer Gavin Monaghan, who has worked with artists such as Editors, Ocean Colour Scene, Robert Plant and Paolo Nutini.

Halliwell said: “We are really happy with it. We are independent so have been doing it all ourselves.

“Some of the songs have been around for a while and others are new, but we have been constantly evolving since we formed.”

“We have a game plan for the next 12 months. Hopefully, the album will bring about more record label interest and bigger and better gigs. That’s what it is all about for us.”

The release rounds off a busy year for the group, and the group's burgeoning reputation has also been enhanced by supporting slots for Catfish and the Bottlemen and the Sherlocks in recent years.

Halliwell, who works at a call centre in Bury, cites the band’s influences as Bloc Party, Editors and the Strokes, but says that he hopes they can emulate the success of Catfish, whose debut album, The Balcony, sold more than 250,000 copies following its 2014 release.

He said: “We just want to quit our day jobs. We are all working at the same time and we are just doing the band whenever we can. We want this to become a full time career."

The album will be launched six days before its release at the band’s gig at Partisan in Manchester on Saturday, November 11.

Chemical Friends can be pre-ordered on CD or vinyl at: https://www.musicglue.com/puppet-rebellion.