A leading Dudley councillor is facing an anxious wait to see if her rock band partner can hit the top of the charts with his group’s new album.

Councillor Laura Taylor’s fiance Chris Childs is bass guitarist with Thunder, who have a string of hit albums to their name.

But they have never made it to No 1, so it’s fingers crossed in their Halesowen home that the new album, released on Friday, can climb to the top.

Laura, Dudley’s cabinet member with responsibility for housing and communities, says it’s started well, but ‘it’s going to be tight.’

She is a big rock fan and met Chris, originally from Essex, when he came to Dudley to play in a friend’s band.

Since then he has moved up to live with Laura in Halesowen.

Thunder are a London-based band and their new work, All the Right Noises, is their 13th studio album.

It is described as a return to ‘the full-throttle sound of Thunder that has seen them create a hugely successful 30+ year career at the forefront of British rock.

Thunder’s success over the decades is built around vocalist Danny Bowes and songwriter and guitarist Luke Morley.

‘All The Right Noises’ was recorded in the months leading up to the first Covid-19 lockdown and was originally due for release last September 2020.

It is another chapter in the band’s 30-year history which has seen them produce classics like ‘Dirty Love’, and ‘Low Life In High Places’, described by the late Radio One Rock Show presenter Tommy Vance as “the greatest ever single released by a rock band”.

Their debut album in 1990 was ‘Backstreet Symphony’, followed in 1992 by ‘Laughing On Judgement Day’, which was only kept off the top spot by Kylie Minogue.

But Laura and Chris are hoping they can go one better this time