WOMAD: JIMMY CLIFF + LINTON KWESI JOHNSON & THE DENNIS BOVELL DUB BAND + SKA CUBANO

It's a measure of the universal appeal of Jimmy Cliff's music that his great hit 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' has been used as campaign music by both the Conservative Party in the UK and Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front. But contradiction is what Jimmy has thrived on throughout 50 years in reggae; this is the man who calmly squares the circle of playing the streetwise gangster in the classic film 'The Harder They Come' and recording his own version of 'Hakuna Matata' from The Lion King. Now in his sixties, that golden tenor voice has lost none of its power, as heard on his recent EP Sacred Fire, produced by Tim Armstrong, frontman of punk veterans Rancid. If the choice of producer seems an unlikely one, it shouldn't. Jimmy's always been keen to pass through new doors and a determination to contribute to a brighter tomorrow still fires him. "I am always looking for the new."