Two Bolton music lovers say they are a punk tribute band’s number one fans after travelling thousands of miles to gigs.

Anne Mather, 50, and her husband Paul, 57, have spent thousands of pounds covering more than 3,000 miles in 16 months to see Straighten Out, a tribute band to The Stranglers.

The couple have been to 27 shows in 18 places including Sheffield, Corby, Grimsby, and various parts of Scotland.

Superfan Paul said: “We met them in Bolton when they came to play in Bromley Cross.

“Then we lost a lot of venues that they could play at in Bolton and we thought if they can’t come to us then we’ll go to them – they’re all great guys and it’s like a little family that we’re part of now.”

Paul runs a window cleaning business, and Anne is a cleaner at Red Lane Primary School.

The hard-working pair have become good friends with the band, who are described as the "world's number one tribute" to The Stranglers, one of the most continuously successful punk-rock bands who have had a five-decade career.

The four members fit their gigs in around full-time jobs, and the shows have become a well-loved social occasion for the Mathers.

Unfortunately, their travels haven’t always been easy, with the couple forced to take a £200 taxi trip to Worcester when trains weren’t running, and getting stuck on a train at Scunthorpe for over two and a half hours.

Paul added: “We were coming back from a show in Grimsby and got stuck in flooding.

“There was a guy from South Africa on the train with us and we had a whip-round for him because the delay made him miss his flight – he was in tears over it.

“We’ve not had many journeys that have been clear cut but so many people have been kind to us.

“The band play a lot of pub venues and when they finish we sometimes don’t know where we’re going.

“The biker’s club in Grimsby always offers us somewhere to stay, and the band will offer to put us up or give us lifts too.

“It just shows you there’s a lot of nice people knocking about.”

Paul and Anne will see the band again in Sheffield on Saturday. The pair believe they’ve now “conquered the North” and will be heading to shows further South this year.