You maybe didn’t realise Oxford had a Latin percussion scene? If not, it’s time you got up to speed. It has been four years now since members of that collective joined forces with Oxford Street Band to form the city’s number one Cuban-style big band Ran Kan Kan, taking their moniker from Tito Peunte’s 1951 mambo hit.

By a happy coincidence, they found Pancho Vera, a Bolivian guitarist and singer living in Oxford, to add a touch of authenticity. On Friday night, he was the platinum-haired, waistcoat-wearing cowboy stood at the front of the 20-strong group on the stage at The Old Fire Station, chewing his pick and goading the audience to shake their hips.

The best thing about Ran Kan Kan is that they even exist in Oxford: getting an authentic-sounding Cuban band together must be difficult, let alone with an impressive brass section, a mean double bassist in a bandana and a decent percussion section. It’s even more unexpected that about half the band members have, like full-fat milk (the best kind), a silver top, but the music sounds genuine, it’s good, clean fun and their hour-long set whizzed by, catalysed by the band’s two chanteuses and flamboyant second frontman Peter Williams.

According to band members, the one thing that let them down on Friday was that their 100-strong audience was half what they normally enjoy. That’s something they won’t have to worry about their next show, where they can look forward to an audience of about 45,000 at Cowley Road Carnival, on July 5.

The second act, Congolese-Latin fusion group Grupo Lokito were a very sweet dessert: two swankily-clad Congolese Casanovas at the front of the stage gyrated in a very suggestive manner while singing sweet Latin harmonies.

They were accompanied by a powerfully light-touch lilting rhythm section of drummer and bass guitarist, two sweetly-duelling African guitars and the slightly surprising British Latin pianist Sara McGuinness. The effect was mesmerising: within seconds the audience were swaying and stomping around the room, arm-in-arm, in tropical transports of bliss. If Ran Kan Kan warmed up the crowd, Grupo Lokito stuck a chilli up its fundament then slow-cooked it under a hot African sun.