Dr Vanessa Knights

Latin music and I were fated. A night on the couch in front of the telly seems an inauspicious start but there I was, a two-tone/ska/Marley fan, aged 17, watching a BBC2 Caribbean music special. I dozed off and awoke in the small hours to the strains of an amazing singer, his voice soaring over a hypnotic salsa beat. My basic O level Spanish couldn't quite keep up but I got the basic idea. This was dance music with a message about social justice. The singer was the legendary salsa star Rubén Blades, the song 'El padre Antonio y el monaguillo Andrés' about an idealist Spanish priest who comes to Latin America condemning violence and preaching love and justice. He is gunned down (recalling the Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero) during mass along with his football-loving altar boy Andrés who never grew up to meet Pelé. The church and salsa cowbells ring out for Antonio and Andrés and all of America (which as Blades reminds us on another LP, refers to the continent not just one country!).

I was hooked, but Middlesbrough twenty years ago was not exactly a Latin Mecca. Even pizzerias were exotic! Nonetheless off I went to town to the home of rare vinyl, the sadly closed Alan Fearnley Records, in search of this fascinating music and there fate was on my side. Leafing through the imports of Chicago House, which was making its impact on the Northern Dance scene through clubs like the Tall Trees, I came across pure gold. I could hardly believe my eyes but there it was... Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar's Grammy winner, Escenas (1985). Destiny. A love affair with Latin music was born and that record still has pride of place in my collection.

Twenty years on and I'm explaining to lecturers in neighbouring classrooms at Newcastle University just why it is essential that my students experience Argentinean rock music at full blast... My Latin music research and teaching has taken me to Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Along the way I have been privileged to meet many amazing musicians and writers, not least fabulously talented Cuban octogenarians like the guitar maestro Ñico Rojas, and look forward to making new friends during ¡VAMOS!

Dr.Vanessa Knights sadly passed away on Saturday 10th March 2007. Vanessa was huge inspiration to everyone who came to know her. She brought so, so much to the ¡VAMOS! project, including unlimited passion, imagination and intellect. It really will not be the same without her.

Our thoughts go out to her family, friends and colleagues.