Hollywood — Bollywood. Motown — Botown. Geddit? This London-based, eight-piece band perform Bollywood songs with a funk and soul twist.

Front-man Ajay Srivastava sees the fusion of Bollywood and Motown as perfectly natural: both are working-class forms of music and a means of escapism.

During the Seventies, several Bollywood composers themselves took funk as one of their influences. Botown’s version of the hugely popular Jiya Dharak is sung over the bassline of Stand By Me — “two continents joined by a chord progression,” quips Srivastava.

Rich Mix is a lively arts complex a stone’s throw from Brick Lane and Botown drew a predominantly Asian crowd on Friday night. Most of them clearly knew the lyrics to the songs.

The spacious bar has some temptingly comfy sofas facing the stage so it took a while to get people on their feet and dancing.

Sporting an orange leather jacket and white trainers, Srivastava asked us to imagine a Memphis blues bar with Ray Charles at the piano, joined by (Hollywood film composer) RD Burman and (singer) Kishore Kumar. In this song — another Bollywood classic called Roop Tera Mastana — the evening took off with soulful sax, fat guitar and the childlike Bollywood voice of vocalist Rekha.

The band features Srivastava on guitar, plus trumpet, tenor sax, keyboard, percussion and kit drums. There were also a rapper and a DJ scratcher, although they seemed surplus to requirements.

It’s a pretty multi-cultural group, including a Frenchman, Hungarian and Jamaican alongside the British Asians and the music had its reggae moments as well as The Beatles and a brief burst of Bollywood‑style Jingle Bells as a nod to the season.

By the end people had been lured off the sofas and onto the dance floor. Botown have been going only since May, already have a South Asian following but need to find a wider audience who would really enjoy their playful fusion.