SURPRISES are in store for fans of Kidderminster band The Amateurs when they release their first "proper" album next month.

Vocalist Rob Ledger said the self-financed 13-track effort would contain a couple of "faster, more upbeat" tracks than the band is known for.

And the four-piece group, who emerged a year ago from the ashes of two defunct town bands, have also been tinkering with samples, organs and strings to give the material a different sound from their live performances. Rob Ledger, Matthew Colley, Andrew Fletcher and Carl Ashton.

Rob said only a couple of songs in the band's current set remain from the days of his former group BlueLiner and the old Amateurs - and that the tracks on the forthcoming album had been written over the summer amid a series of local gigs.

"We've used samples, organs and strings to give each song its own identity," he added.

The Amateurs - Rob, drummer Carl Ashton, bass player Andrew Fletcher and vocalist and guitarist Matthew Colley, who supplied the album's artwork - are planning to hold a launch party at Kidderminster's Tap House when it is released some time at the end of this month or the start of November.

They are also pencilled in for a return appearance at The Watermill on Wednesday, November 21, after first taking centre stage there in August hoping to attract a different kind of audience.

Next Wednesday they are returning to London for the first time since May for a gig at Camden's Dublin Castle - and an over-subscribed fans' coach for the date is a mark of their growing popularity.

And Rob hopes the release of the album, titled The Amateurs - Whatever You Want It To Be, their second CD after they produced an EP last year, will help keep things ticking over.

They will be sending copies out to management companies and selling them at gigs and are hopeful some independent record stores will stock a few copies.

Despite the addition of a couple of faster tracks, Rob says the album's sound is "more mellow" than earlier material.

He added: "You sit locked away in a studio and go off on a tangent and hope that people will like it. I think they will."