STAFF Benda Bilili's story is as fascinating as their music.

Discovered playing in the grounds of Kinshasa zoo in the Congo, the band, consisting of paraplegics and former street children, have found fame in spite of and not because of their problems.

Four members are confined to wheelchairs, while another supports himself on crutches. They are accompanied by a drummer, bassist and young soloist whose instrument, crudely based on a lute, is fashioned out of an old fish can, a piece of wood and a single guitar string.

Playing a style of music that has roots in traditional African, but also strays into blues and reggae, Staff had the audience at the superbly designed, but unimaginatively named Hall Two at the Sage in raptures from the off.

I love Africa and African music with a passion and though I may have been sat in the rather grey North-East all I had to do was close my eyes and let Staff Benda Bilili take me back to the backstreets of Cape Town and Nairobi.

A microphone problem that surfaced two songs in with the band ramping up the atmosphere threatened to put a dampener on proceedings, but, once sorted, they picked up where they left off and soon had people dancing in the aisles with gay abandon.

It mattered not that most probably did not understand the lyrics, sang almost exclusively in French, and it mattered not that at times there were flaws in the performance. No, when a group of musicians truly connects with their audience like this those kind of things are an irrelevance.

Beautiful, absorbing and, above all, great fun.