CULT Harrogate band Wally are to release their first studio album for 35 years.

Montpellier was recorded in Leeds in the wake of last year’s hometown reunion concert at the Royal Hall and will be available from this weekend at Rock Steady Music, in Regent Parade, and The Blues Bar, in Montpellier Parade, and from wallymusic.co.uk

In keeping with Wally’s second album, Valley Gardens, released in 1975, Montpellier has been named after the area in Harrogate where most of the band members lived and played in the Seventies.

Their single Nez Perce featured Madeline Bell on backing vocals and was a Johnnie Walker record of the week on BBC Radio 1, while further highlights included appearing on Bob Harris’s TV show, The Old Grey Whistle Test.

The band folded in 1975 and plans were being put in place for a reunion last year when keyboard player Paul Gerrett died in his sleep in Thailand. Original guitarist Pete Cosker passed away in 1991 from a drink and drugs-related illness, and their deaths signified that the concert in April, 2009, would be not only a re-grouping but also a tribute.

The five remaining members – Paul Middleton, pedal steel and bass; Pete Sage, violin; Roger Narraway, drums; Nick Glennie-Smith, keyboards; and Roy Webber, lead vocals and guitar – duly recruited two new musicians to complete the Wally wall of sound.

The new line-up, incorporating Frank Mizen on pedal steel, banjo and bass and Will Jackson on lead guitar, will play in Harrogate for a second time when reconvening at the Royal Hall on April 17 at 7.15pm. Introduced by Bob Harris, Wally will perform material from Montpellier plus all their old favourites.