Dragonfly + Megara + Adarzu, Honky Tonk Express, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Friday May 21 2010 by JAMES TWEEDIE This small venue, with its volcanic rock-cladding décor, looks a little like a medieval dungeon – quite a common theme here on 'The Rock'. By the time the doors open at half part ten (the Spanish like to go out late) there is already a small crowd of kids on the pavement of the seafront Avenida Anaga, tinning and skinning in readiness for the proceedings. The Honky Tonk Express is respectably full by the time the first band comes on, despite the British indie music being piped through the PA. The €3 price of a jarra or pint of lager completes the incongruous Anglo ambiance in this north-west African colony of Spain. A Sabbath-esque doom-laden intro tape gives way to local band Adarzu's Gothic metal. The band members look the part, especially Nosferatu-like keyboardist Ricardo. Female vocalist Patricia has a great pair of lungs and ballsy delivery, and frankly this i...

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Thursday May 20 2010 HUNDREDS of public-sector workers protested against the government's austerity plan in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz on Thursday. by JAMES TWEEDIE Demonstrators waved flags and chanted slogans against Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) prime minister José Luis Zapatero. A banner read: “For the defence of the public against government cuts – Mobilize!” State employees are threatening a national general strike on June 8 if the government does not back down on its €15 billion austerity plan – part of its response to the financial crisis. The plan includes a five per cent pay cut for state workers from June, an immediate freeze on increases in state pensions and a pay freeze from next year. The protest outside the national government's Sub-delegation or regional office included members of the large national Workers' Commissions (CCOO) and General Union of Workers (UGT). Also present were the smaller Independent Public Employees...

Festival Laguna Rock 4, Instituto Viera y Clavijo, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Saturday May 15 2010 by JAMES TWEEDIE Call it Guanche Metal, call it Volcanic Rock, the Canarian heavy metal scene continues to surprise and delight. Hispanic metal is overlooked in the English-speaking world, so apparently they just do their own thing regardless. The faithful have gathered on the tarmac football pitch of this motorway-side sports centre for what is at least the third multi-act gig so far this year. They're selling litre pots of the local brew from a kiosk in front of the Red Cross ambulances, so we can be sure of plenty of good clean fun. First onto the inflatable stage are Gran Canaria's Semper . Their competent modern thrash is somewhat wasted on the small crowd in the last evening light, but the early birds seem to appreciate them. Tenerife's Alea Jacta  (pictured) impress with their more 'trad' thrash metal, stirring up the first mosh-pit of the night among...

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday May 1 2010 TRADE unions marched through Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz to mark International Workers' Day on Saturday. by JAMES TWEEDIE In the first demonstration of the day, some 1,000 members of the Intersyndical Canaria (IC) regional trade union federation demand a halt to changes to labour laws which they say would undermine job security. Marchers chanted: "These reforms will sack us" and "Paulino and Zapatero to the dole queue", in reference to Canarian Coalition regional president Paulino Rivero and Socialist Party prime minister José Luis Zapatero. Santa Cruz was decked out for its May festival as the protesters made their way from García Sanabria park to the dockside Plaza España, the seat of Tenerife's Cabildo government. Walls and lamp-posts had been defaced with a worrying proliferation of far-right propaganda stickers from the Falange Española faction of the original fascist movement of dictator General Franco...