The acclaimed latino guitar blues band were established in 1998 in Lancaster by musician and composer Howard Haigh and since then have had amazing success across the globe.

They will appear as an eight-piece band at the Barbican Hall in London next Tuesday with a 180 voice choir and 35 piece orchestra, performing three compositions.

I met Howard in the Sultan of Lancaster to discuss the band, the concert, and how music is a form of hypnotism.

Howard said: "I got a guitar - my first instrument - one week before my 14 birthday and played only rock music at first. Then got into everything else I could find by the time I was 16.

"I first had a formal, one-to-one guitar lesson when I was 18. This was on the Spanish guitar, which I'd been learning from books. That is considered to be very late to start but I don't think it matters as much as following your dream. For me that was to play and create music.

"My age? That's a secret but I am very old. In fact I'm the same age as President Fidel Castro of Cuba - you can quote me on that."

The name of the band came from a piece of music Howard wrote for a dance called Lava, about volcanic lava and it seemed to suit the music and nature of the band; ever changing and evolving.

The regular line up of the band includes Guy Morris on blues guitar, vocals and percussion, Dave Shooter on bass guitar and Christof Lheureux on percussion, guitar and vocals.

Their Barbican gig consists of three sections including a live Spanish choir, live multi-tracking and content in Hebrew, Jewish Spanish and Castilian.

The band are also set to play the Kendal Calling Music Festival on August 2, and will be appearing in the bar stage at Solfest in Cumbria over August Bank Holiday.

Lava's new album Taraba - meaning hypnotism with music - is out now.