Welshpool's firefighters will launch their bid for a Christmas number one this weekend, and the County Times is calling on all our readers to back our lads and lasses from across Mid Wales and beyond in their charity bid.

Stars from the Fire Tones version of Band Aid's "Do they know it's Christmas?" will be on hand at the grand switch on of Welshpool's Christmas lights on Friday, November 30 where CD's will be on sale for the first time, and they will also be revealing an exclusive first look at the song's video.

Proceeds from the song, which will be available both as a digital download on i-Tunes and Amazon and via CD, will be split between the Firefighter's Charity and Band Aid.

The group have had a rush order of CD's brought in from Austria in order that they can be distributed to High Street branches of HMV, while a production line was set up at the fire station to pack and seal the band's specially commissioned artwork into the sleeves.

"It's been like a military operation over the past few weeks," said organiser Chris Birdsell-Jones.

"The community spirit here has been massive. I've had people stopping me all the time asking when they can get the CD, even whether they can get it on vinyl!

"The main thing obviously has been to raise money for these two great charities but of course it would be sensational to do well in the charts.

"Everyone remembers a Christmas number one don't they and it would be mad for this little idea we had in Welshpool to end up as an answer on Trivial Pursuit or something."

And Birdsell-Jones, the Welshpool firefighter who originally came up with the idea of a Christmas single, said the level of support he'd encountered in the local community since news of the single first broke had been unlike anything he'd experienced before.

"I'm not originally from Welshpool, I moved here when I met my wife Lucie, and I've always lived in cities until I came here.

"When you live in a city you're not really part of a community in the same way, you're sort of part of that suburb but it's not like that here - here it's a real community thing."

“A final big thank you goes out to our sponsors of the CD,  Mike Harris, The New Saints FC and VCW Security as well as RoQ Recruitment who have helped make all this possible,” added Chris.

The single will be released on November 30, and is available for pre-order on www.thefiretones.com.