Simon Ashberry talks to the guitarist with Pakistan's biggest rock band about their bizarre blend of heavy metal riffs and traditional Asian musical forms.

Remember that scene in Back To The Future when time-travelling Michael J Fox bemuses a 1950s audience by playing modern rock guitar?

It struck an all-too-familiar chord with Salman Ahmad when he made one of his first public appearances as a musician.

He is the guitarist and songwriter with Junoon, Pakistan's biggest rock band.

And when he was a medical student in Lahore he caused a sensation by playing heavy metal in a talent show

"At the time I was steeped in Van Halenisms," recalled Salman.

"So I got up on stage and played Eruption. Man, it was like that scene in Back To The Future."

He's a come long way since then, forcing the music scene in Pakistan to make room for rock.

Now, British-based fans can see the band when they play their first live shows in the UK this weekend.

Junoon, who also feature lead singer Ali Azmat and bassist Bran O'Connell, are over here for only two dates, one of which is in Bradford on Sunday.

You can see them at Maestro's in Manningham Lane supporting fusion pioneers Asian Dub Foundation, who have received acclaim for their current debut album Rafi's Revenge.

Salman has come a long way since that talent contest. After being in a sugary pop band called Vital Signs who scored a big hit in 1987 with the patriotic single Dil Dil Pakistan, he quit in 1992 to form the much more raucous Junoon.

The band sing in Urdu and blend Western hard rock with Sindhi, Punjabi folk and qawali.

Junoon - the word means passion or obsession - are influenced by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, as well as Van Halen.

It's not all been a smooth ride for Junoon.

Last year they released a controversial single called Ehtesaab, which means accountability in Urdu. It mocked Pakistani politicians and caused uproar with a video which showed clips of children working in menial jobs juxtaposed with shots of a fictional politician spilling curry down his shirt, wiping it off with a thousand rupee note and handing it to the waiter as a tip.

The country's caretaker government banned the video from state television and was also unhappy when 10,000 fans flocked to see Junoon play at Nishtar Park in Karachi in December.

When the band turned up, they even found that the Karachi authorities had neglected to provide an electricity hook-up.

"So we asked the local Maulvis if we could run a cable from one of their madrasas, an Islamic religious school," recalled Salman.

"And, you know, they were really cool about it. They just said we should stop playing during the call to prayer."

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