French guitarist, Claude Leonetti, came off his motorbike in 1986 in an accident and lost his arm.

For most this would mean giving up playing music but he was determined not to be thwarted and started exploring synthesizers and computer music but the prog rock guitarist truly missed his guitar.

One night he had a dream, an idea of inventing a new instrument, and the following morning he started scribbling his idea down on to paper.

"I swear it's true! It was after a dream. The following week I made a scale drawing of my imaginary instrument and called it a Leode. I met Vincent Maury from LAG Innov'art and together we worked on the project for two years,'' said Claude.

Today the guitarist is back in prog rock band, Lazuli, and performing with his Leode. The French band will be performing in Swindon on Sunday March 24 at Level 111 in Commercial Road.

"The Leode is an improbable mix of guitar, synthesizer and a melodic saw. I release the notes by pressing with my right hand, the strings and keys are channels and the fingers move over the smooth surface,'' said Claude.

It is a unique instrument and Claude says, with glee, at the moment he is the best player of the Leode in the world.

Lazuli were founded in 1998 and were given a helping hand by former Marillion lead singer, Fish. The prog rockers toured with him and gained international fans for themselves.

The band are currently working on a new album they hope to record at the end of the year.

Frontman Dominique Leonetti said: "We are preparing a new album for the end of 2019. It will be a special album... I can't say more for the moment. The writing is finished and we start recording between Lazuli trips. When we come to Britain we will play some songs from our last opus of 2018, Saison 8, but also some old songs to make our fans happy.''

Joining Claude and Dominique in the band are Gederic Byar on guitar, Vincent Barnavol on drums and Romain Thorel on keyboards.

Lazuli will play The Borderline in London on the Saturday and Level 111 on the Sunday at 7.30pm. Tickets to the Swindon gig are £10 from https://level3swindon.com/