PREPARING to put their own stamp on this year’s Christmas anthem Rochdale punks Bye Bye Johnny are set to release their debut single ‘Take Cover With Me’.

Since forming out of the ashes of original punk band Noble Savage less than two years ago, Bye Bye Johnny have scaled the heights of the Manchester music scene.

Opening Danny McNamara's Aftershow alongside the Tings Tings and playing every backstreet venue any dirty rock club inbetween, the band were even snapped up to play this year’s V Festival.

But it's not just old skool punk roots that give this band the edge, but a ‘divine intervention’ believes frontman Danny Seasman after their practice room went up in flames just over a year ago.

Unbelievably, despite the whole building burning to the ground Bye Bye Johnny’s instruments escaped intact; and the band have honoured their good fortune ever since gigging relentlessly to build up an army of fans and bring back punk.

Over 200 loyal supporters are expected to turn out for their single release party at the Roadhouse in Manchester this Saturday, with 100 limited edition CDs available on the night

Bass player Russ Davis said: “We’ve chosen to release ‘Take Cover with Me’ as we think it shows everything that we are about - it’s up tempo and it’s a bit in your face.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into our single release and hopefully we’ll get a lot out of it. The way we see it is there’s no point fishing around all the time to get noticed, if we can keep playing gigs and selling out shows people will automatically start to take notice.”

Their single release party will be taking place on Saturday 6 December at The Roadhouse in Manchester, the gig is almost sold out with the last few remaining tickets available from www.myspace.com/byebyejohnnylive.

Take Cover With Me will be available for download from iTunes and Napster.