Hyde Park on a balmy Saturday night, and London is in the grips of a love affair with the Buena Vista Social Club. All the way from Cuba, average age seventy five, and a few years back, no one outside their country had heard of them.

SUBS MISSING

Ferrer:  This is more than a dream—look, I have to pinch myself several times to ensure this is not a dream, not a film,  but a true reality.

SUBS MISSING

Omara:  We had always yearned for this level of success, but we did not really expect it. For us it was a very nice surprise when we saw we had achieved our goals.

They’ve been on the road for six months now, playing to sell-out shows across Europe – all because they were discovered in Cuba by American musician Ry Cooder four years ago. International success was almost instant.

Manager:  It's the biggest world music album we've had over the last three years. I don't even have to sell it. It just – it walks off the shelves. No matter what we do to it, where we put it, it sells. If we put it in sound tracks it goes, if we put it in world music it goes. We can put it anywhere. It's – the cover is an instantly recognisable image and it just, it goes – if we put it in the attic it would sell.

Here in London, the Buena Vista Social Club has come to represent a romantic past and it seems, has led to a love of all things Cuban.

Omara: Oh yes. We do not think so, we are sure of it. We are sure that we are ambassadors for Cuba.

Ferrer: We are ambassadors of Cuban culture.

So let's check out this passion for Cuba first hand. For young twenty somethings, salsa dancing has become all the rage. At this club in Soho, classes are booked out almost every night. And the catalyst is the Buena Vista Social Club.

Marissa: I  think they just sound good. And salsa is not an ageist music. Anybody can take part. So the fact that they're really old doesn't matter. And it kind of adds to it, it's a bit of a novelty. You know what I mean? They're cute and they sound so good. And they dance and they move and they gyrate, so they're great.

And as we discover when we cross town to the upmarket Sloane Street, home to the exclusive Montes Club, the Cuban cult has no age or class barriers.

David:  We've got some lovely Trinidads, what are the cigars that Fidel Castro used to smoke.

Downstairs, during the day, front desk manager David Frentzel sells Cuban cigars to the seriously rich, who can’t get enough of them.

David:  That's £870.

Sales are always conducted to the soothing tones of the Buena Vista Social Club. And, when work is done, time to play at the club bar upstairs, where business is booming, and cigar smoke is everywhere. Now this is the life it wouldn’t be so difficult to get used to. As the barman mixes us Cuban cocktails known as mahitas, made from Havana rum, David happily samples his wares.

David: It’s a whole sexy thing, cutting it, lighting it, the pleasure of it. Havana cigars are always the best cigars in the world. They're the Rolls Royce.

Ewart:  And when those Rolls Royce drinks finally arrive, the Monte's management insist on their visitor taking part in every aspect of Cuba they can supply.

Ewart:  So what's the big attraction to a small communist country thousands of kilometres away, that David Frentzel visits as often as he can.

David:  It's almost back to that fifties thing. It's like going back to the fifties. The music, the cigars, the rum, that whole thing, it's so exciting. And the fact there is no McDonalds on every corner. And no Americans.

It’s a love affair that may not last, because change in Cuba is considered inevitable. But Cuba’s self-appointed ambassadors are confident that their music will endure, no matter what.

Omara: Yes, we believe that this music is coming from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, all the decades.  One's identity can be determined through the music, and we are sure the next generation  will seek to preserve our identity which is our culture.  Of course it will be more up to date – there will be more sources of inspiration – but without doubt, Cuban music will live on.