NEXT week, Ribble Valley based Drop the Floor will be continuing their mission to bring traditional music to a mainstream audience.

For the quartet have been invited to perform at the Lytham Festival and, as singer and guitarist Richard Moss admits, the festival crowd will be in for a surprise or two.

"Over the last couple of years we have kept getting more high profile gigs," said Richard. "It's a bit of a bonus to get to play Lytham as most of the artists on the bill could not be classed as folk. We may have our roots in traditional Irish music but we like to get out of the folk ghetto," he laughed.

"We have played the Cloudspotting Festival in the Ribble Valley a couple of times and we've had the crowd up and dancing in the pouring rain.

"If you had asked those people beforehand if they would go to a concert of traditional Irish music, it wouldn't have been a priority for them and yet they loved it."

Drop the Floor - Steven Johnston on Uilleann pipes, Martin Baptie on fiddle and vocals, Daniel Burke on banjo and Richard on guitar and vocals - met through a shared love of traditional music.

"We were basically mates who got together at the pub to play some music and people started offering us gigs," said Richard. "We didn't start off playing with the intention of it becoming a commercial venture."

And in spite of their success, the four can still be found in the back room of the New Inn in Clitheroe playing at the traditional music session which is held every other week.

"The Ribble Valley has always had a good fraternity of Irish musicians," said Richard. "In their formative years Dan and Steve were part of the scene in Chatburn where there were some very fine musicians who were older than they were.

"For me, I grew up singing folk songs with my family.

"When you think of it, the North West is a lot closer to Ireland than it is to London and even the traditional music of the North West has a lot in common with Irish and Scottish music."

Although the Lytham date will open up the band to a new audience, Richard said that they would be treating next Friday's show like any other gig.

"We will make a plan as far as the setlist and then probably totally ignore it," he said. "We tend to just do what feels right on the night. If the audience is up and dancing then we'll keep them on their feet. If they are more of a listening crowd then we can do that too.

"Although people as see us as traditional, we have got a lot of energy on stage and we also have a lot of fun making music which audiences respond to.

This week Drop the Floor were also offered the chance to support Dervish in Clitheroe Grand in October.

"That is also a massive thing for us," said Richard. "They are possibly the top traditional Irish band around at the moment so it is another great opportunity for us."

Drop the Floor play the World and Jazz stage at Lytham Festival on Friday, August 6. Details from lythamfestival.com