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We took a short but very welcome trip to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the third week of November. Las Palmas is Spain’s seventh largest city and the administrative capital of the Canary Islands.

J and I stayed at the AC Hotel overlooking the Parque Santa Catalina and, further off toward the horizon, the busy port.

Gran Canaria

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WOMAD Canarias 2007

This edition of WOMAD was originally the main reason we travelled to Las Palmas, though it didn’t dominate the trip. Indeed J and I weren’t to be found “down the front” that often.

The event was cancelled and then reconfirmed so late that many other travellers won’t have made it. I think it’s likely the line-up of artists might have suffered too.

And a couple of artists weren’t exactly “world music”. Gritty Sevillan rapper Mala Rodriguez was one distinctly pop performer, appending a rather unsavoury contingent to the usual chilled publico.

La Vegueta: the echoes of Colón

From Las Palmas’ old town in the district of La Vegueta, Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) began the fateful journeys of discovery that led him to the New World. In Colón’s time, the Canaries themselves had barely been settled under the blustery clouds of courtly intrigue.

Santa Ana is the principal Cathedral of the Islands and the seat of the region’s bishops. The peaceful courtyard of the adjacent Museo Diocesano was once host to the local Inquisition. Where once the officials conducted the grim business of examination and condemnation is now coloured by the lush foliage of grapefruit trees.

Las Canteras

The peninsular north end of Las Palmas tapers off with the industrial port on the east side and the long beach of Las Canteras on the west.

The nature of the Canarian weather in winter is such that at times it can seem like late spring and turn moments later to overcast skies and almost chilly sea breeze.

Harrogate, that most venerable of stuffy old Yorkshire towns, pulled off a real coup this week by having the wonderful Lila Downs over to do a concert for its International Festival. This weekend, it was the turn of Cuba’s Sierra Maestra, followed by timba band Manolito Y Su Trabuco.

Grupo Sierra Maestra has been around since the late 1970s.It was founded by Juan de Marcos González, the man responsible for bringing together a diverse group of musicians later known as the Buena Vista Social Club.

Sierra Maestra’s members had been students at the University of Havana. In forming the band, it was their intention to revive the old son tradition that had defined the golden era of Cuban music and formed the bedrock for most modern styles. De Marcos left in 1996 to work on the Buena Vista project and his new outfit Afro-Cuban All Stars.

The group probably weren’t at their best. It didn’t help that the sound at the International Centre was decidedly poor and the lighting system appeared to have baffled their technician judging by the rather messy display. But the crowd was easy enough to please, with a number of couples getting up to dance salsa from the front rows.

Timba is a tough style to pin down - it’s the Cuban adaptation of salsa, but aficionados will tell you that timba is significantly different and certainly not a subset of salsa. In any event, the sound of Manolito Y Su Trabuco was rather cloying, delivered by a tight band and three rather daft looking singers. I guess it’s a case of you win some, you lose some.

As my interest in world music continues to develop, some names come up increasingly often.

Though I had heard only snippets of her music, the voice of cantante mexicana Lila Downs persuaded me to grab a couple of tickets for this rare appearance. My hunch seems to have paid off!

Ms Downs, the daughter of an American father and a Mexican mother, digs deep into the Indian traditions of the Oaxaca region and, it would seem, the recesses of her own soul.

With a composite of multinational session musicians, she managed to thrill her small audience with an extraordinary vocal range that went from heartbreak to extreme joy and even frivolity, often in the same song.

Downs danced merrily through the old standard Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, breathed extra vitality into Indian dance rhythms and even left room for social comment with a paean to itinerant Mexican workers.

After a loud encore, Lila and band left the stage at Harrogate Theatre bound for WOMAD and I fancy many of us wished those energetic 90 minutes could have lasted all night.

Now let’s get one thing straight: Girona is a city in Catalonia. It is not in Italy - if you think that, you’re crossing Genoa and Verona and you’re getting Gerona (sic).

J and I visited Girona last week, right before my 28th birthday, for the 3rd Caixa Sabadell Etnival, a free world music mini-festival held in the city.

Our sojourn was a double-header: part city visit, part gig trip.

Story and photos next…

After a weekend spent seeing as many people as possible around the Leeds area, I’m quite tired today.

Driving home yesterday was painful. What had been a two anda half hour journey ballooned into about four hours, with bad weather and those pointless motorway slowdowns contributing to the cause.I don’t particularly like driving anyway, but the roads just seem to get worse and worse.

There were an extraordinary number of motorbikes on the roads yesterday. I mean swarms of them. Don’t know what that was all about, but I think the concentration was certainly around Donington Park. Ah, hang on, a bit of digging around tells me that it was the Moto GP there.

Not that the bikers were causing the congestion of course, for they just fly up the scant space between the lanes. I was just wondering why so many were around. J told me about something called the Bulldog Bash, which apparently is a national event for bikers.

“BAR-B-Q’S ALLOWED,”says one of the rules for visitors, “BUT STRICTLY NO FIRES AND NO DOGS (EITHER ALIVE OR COOKED)”.

J says that these events are purer in spirit than the corporate-sponsored festivals of today. It’s taking place at Long Marston, near Stratford-upon-Avon and more information can be found on the official website, so why not get down there and check outthe Topless Bike Wash?