"It's music to drink beer to," drawls singer and fiddle-player Barley Scotch, aka John Wheeler.

"All our songs are ones we do when we're drinking beer, and it turns out other beer drinkers like the same things. The whole point of the band is to get everyone drinking beer and raising hell it's just a big wet t-shirt competition to me."

The alcohol-friendly sound this extrovert outfit like to drink to is 'rockgrass', a quirky mix of heavy rock and cotton-pickin' bluegrass.

Their story (now made into a Spinal Tap-esque film) is based on a bunch of hillbillies growing up in Deer Lick Holler, deep in the Appalachia, where country music rules and the outside rock world hasn't yet managed to penetrate. One day a stranger passes through, crashes his car against a tree, and dies.

Whilst searching through his things for his identity, they find an immense collection of AC/DC records and a new musical synthesis is born.

The band started out with an AC/DCdominated choice of covers (hence the band's moniker Hay-seed Di-xie), with Highway To Hell and other classics injected with a surging banjo-driven mountain style and lonesome hillbilly harmonies.

This may sound like a comical concept, but it works. Songs charge along with a gloriously upbeat rhythm and contagious sense of fun and Barley's insistence that the link between the rock and bluegrass genres is not so tenuous is musically vindicated.

"See, I don't think they are so different," he says. "Hank Williams' Lost Highway and AC/DC's Highway to Hell are the same road. I really did grow up with just two CDs my dad's Hank and AC/DC. Those really were my two influences, my two favourite bands and they're both great in the same way.

"Both go for songs about sin, bad women and the bottle. People may think it's funny but it's funny because it's true." Proving more popular than anyone had expected, the debut A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC sold over 100,000 copies. Now Scotch and bandmates Dale Reno (mandolin), Don Wayne Reno (banjo) and Jason D. Smith (bass) are on their fifth release and have moved on from their AC/DC specialty.

Other tunes to worm their way in for a yee-hah remix include Aerosmith's Walk This Way and Kiss's Detroit Rock City. On their just-released new album Hot Piece of Grass, more eclectic numbers such as Outkast's Roses, Franz Ferdinand's This Fire and Neil Young's Rockin' The Free World.

"It wouldn't be that fun to keep on doing the same thing," explains Scotch.

"We'll keep playing Highway To Hell at every gig until we die but we can't keep releasing the same thing on record. I quite fancy doing Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time next. Though the lyrics always struck me as odd for a school girl on that one.

"Maybe we'll change it to Spike Me One More Time."

Starts 9pm, tickets cost £12.50. Call 01273 647100.