A new musical about Fela Kuti has drawn rave reviews in New York, and a West End run is eagerly awaited. Now his son Femi wants to bring it home to Lagos.

As midnight approaches in Lagos, the heat has barely subsided. Up on stage, a lithe, sweat-soaked figure is gripping the microphone and working a single song that's been building for half an hour. It swells to a finale that uses every one of the 20 or so band-members and finally stills the dancers that line the stage and fill the wooden cages above the dance-floor.

The song has no name. It's just been made up, and this may be the first and last time this instant Afro beat classic is heard. Rehearsals are like that at the New Afrika Shrine, the second coming of Lagos's legendary club, Mecca and stage for Fela Kuti. The singer on stage is Femi Kuti, son of the bandleader once known as the Black President, and one of Nigeria's biggest stars in his own right.