A BAND formed to play at a birthday party has been snapped up by an American record label.

Holmfirth-based Old Man Pie is made up of six men aged in their 30s and 40s who formed to perform at the 40th birthday of band member James Munroe’s wife four years ago.

But now they are recording their debut album after being signed by Pseudo Psalm Records, an alternative country music record company.

Old Man Pie is made up of businessmen Martin Christie, Ian Evans, Greg Smith, designer Stuart McPearson, Adrian Barraclough who works for the Environment Agency and former web developer and dad-of-four James Munroe.

James said: “We got together for my wife’s birthday and got a better reaction than we imagined. So we carried on playing together at friends’ parties and doing cover songs.

“Martin writes his own songs, so he brought a few of them along and we started playing them and gradually added them to our set list.

“Two years ago we were getting more requests to play in pubs and clubs and it’s carried on from there.”

But much of their success is down to the internet. The band formed their own website and thanks to the skills of designer Stuart they are getting more than 30,000 hits every time they put a new animation online along with one of their songs.

News of the band spread and they were contacted by Pseudo Psalm Records based in Indiana who specialise in alternative country music.

James added: “Initially we were a bit gobsmacked. We’ve been recording music over the past few years so have picked our favourite tracks and sent them out to the record company to have a listen to.

“The album will hopefully be set for worldwide release in June (next month).. And hopefully if it goes down well in America we might by asked to go out there and perform.”

Their debut album Old Man Pie is set for release on June 16.

The band are due to play at Huddstock on June 6 in South Crosland and they and they played a set at The Nook pub in Holmfirth on Wednesday this week.

VISIT www.oldmanpie.net for more information about the band.