WHEN African guitarist Mose Fan Fan stepped onto the stage and the lights came down, for just one night the people of South Lakeland embarked up a journey to Kinshasa.

Picking up his acoustic guitar, Mose Fan Fan, one of Africa's most celebrated musicians, wasted no time in getting the audience up onto their feet.

Transformed by the dark, steamy space of the Brewery Art Centre's Malt Room in Kendal, the audience took little persuasion to join him on an African adventure.

And so the night began, with residents of the auld grey town hip-shaking and arm-waving Congo style.

Accompanied by the rich vocals of Deesse Mukangi, the six-man team of acoustic guitars, percussion and keyboard, eased through a set of seductive tracks from their Congo Acoustic album.

Bringing in a group of supporters was local lad Daniel Howard, originally from Keswick, who now plays drums for the band.

To the audience's delight, the mellow river of sound was intermittently whipped up into a more frenzied rumba by Armado Mabumbi on the bongos.

As the musicians took a quick break from the Kendalian heat, the audience was kept occupied by a powerful dance display performed by Les Soukoussiennes - three African dancers dressed in traditional printed cloth dresses, who practically exploded onto the stage.

In the second set, electric instruments were added to the melee and the band launched into a Congalese rumba set with the dancers mingling with the audience teaching them a thing or two.

Mojo magazine once described Mose Fan Fan as "the most important dance band in African history" and for one night at least the Lake District was in agreement.

BB