A BLACK Country singer and his bandmates saw in the New Year by stripping off for a charity calendar.

WEAK13 frontman Nick J Townsend from Stourbridge and bandmates Neel Parmar from Rowley Regis (drums) and Wesley Smith from Dudley (bass) got their kit off for the Instrumental Covers 2015 calendar to help raise cash for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The grunge rockers, who appear covered only by their instruments on the March page, were among 12 acts selected to grace the racy calendar which also features Justin Hawkins, from The Darkness, posing for the September page with only a keyboard covering his private parts.

WEAK13 bassist Wesley Smith described the nude photo shoot as “a lot of fun” and said: "Not only did we pose naked but we also played a couple of songs nude for the photographer.

“After losing my mum to cancer in October after a three-year battle, it meant a lot to me on a personal level to be raising money for Macmillan via this calendar.”

WEAK13 celebrated the launch of the calendar by performing at a charity show at the Robin 2 at Bilston last month..

Lead singer and guitarist Nick, who works at Base Studios in Stourbridge, said: "We had agreed as a band that we weren’t going to play live again until our debut studio album is completely finished, but we felt this was such a good cause that we had to say yes when we were asked to be involved.”

Never before heard tracks from WEAK13 were performed live at the gig while the band is still putting the finishing touches to its forthcoming album, which is being produced by engineer John Stewart of Eight Great Fears.

The calendar, priced £9.99, is available from www.onlinecalendarshop.com/macmillan-instrumental-covers.html