Don Letts

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Don Letts
Don Letts during his time with Big Audio Dynamite - San Francisco, 1987
Don Letts during his time with Big Audio Dynamite - San Francisco, 1987
Background information
Birth name Don Letts
Born January 10, 1956(1956-01-10)
London, England
Genre(s) Reggae
Punk
Occupation(s) Disc jockey
Movie producer
Years active 1975-present
Associated acts 1978 -Steel Leg v the Electric Dread
1984 - Big Audio Dynamite
Website Don's BBC6 show

Don Letts (born January 10, 1956(1956-01-10)) is a British film director and musician. He is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Letts was born in London, England. In 1975 Letts ran the trendy London clothing store Acme Attractions selling, "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long."[2] Letts was deeply inspired by the music coming from his parents' homeland Jamaica, in particular Bob Marley. After seeing one of Marley's gigs at the Odeon in Hammersmith (June, 1976) he was able to sneak into the hotel and spent the night talking to and befriending Marley.[3] By the mid 70s Acme had quite a scene attracting all the like of the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry and Bob Marley.

“ Marley ... come by because he knew he could get a good draw from the thriving black-market action that also went on in Acme. ”
 
— Don Letts [2]

Seeing the crowd at Acme then promoter Andy Czezowski started up the Roxy, a London nightclub during the original outbreak of punk in England, so that people could go from the store and have some place to party, Letts was the first house DJ. As few bands of that era had yet to be recorded, there were limited punk rock records to be played. Instead, Letts included many dub and reggae records in his sets, and is credited with introducing those sounds to the London punk scene, which was to influence The Clash and other bands. As a tribute, he is pictured on the cover of the album Super Black Market Clash.He was able to use the fame and money from DJing and the Acme story to make his first movie, The Punk Rock Movie (1978). Punk Rock Movie documented the original UK punk rock movement.

Letts quit the retail business to manage the band,the Slits. He was able to get the Slits to open for the Clash during the White Riot tour. While on the White Riot tour he decided that management wasn't for him but continued to shoot material for The Punk Rock Movie. [4]

Letts went to Jamaica for the first time when after the Pistols broke up Johnny Rotten decided to escape the media frenzy by going with Richard Branson to Jamica to check out the scene. It was on this trip that Branson was inspired to start up Virgin's Frontline reggae label.[2]

“ I guess he thought that since I was black and Jamaican - well, sort of - he'd be in good hands. Little did he know that the closest I'd been to Jamaica was watching The Harder They Come at the Classic Cinema in Brixton. ”
 
— Don Letts [2]

[edit] Music

Letts recorded a 1978 EP, Steel Leg v the Electric Dread, with Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, and Steel Leg. After Mick Jones was fired from the The Clash he and Letts founded Big Audio Dynamite in 1984. As of 1st April 2007 Don is now presenting a weekly show (Saturday's, 23:00 - 00:00) on BBC Radio 6 Music.

[edit] Books

In 2006, he published an autobiography:

  • Letts, Don; David Nobakht [2007-01-22] (2008). Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers, 3rd edition, London: SAF Publishing. ISBN 0946719993. OCLC 181422771. 

[edit] Movies

Since his first movie, The Punk Rock Movie (1978) Letts has expanded doing documentaries and music videos for multiple bands. But it wasn't till 1997, he traveled to his family's native Jamaica to direct his first feature film, Dancehall Queen. [4] While filming a history of punk in 2001 Don was in New York when the Sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks occurred.[1] His film Westway to the World won a Grammy award in 2003.

[edit] Filmography (as Director)

"Soul Britannia" (2007)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Matteo Sedazzari (2007). Don Letts (HTML). peom. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  2. ^ a b c d Don Letts (Wednesday October 24, 2001). 'Dem crazy baldheads are my mates' (HTML). The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  3. ^ Don Letts (May 24, 2007). Don Letts: In his own words - Special to BobMarley.com (HTML). pub. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  4. ^ a b Charlotte Robinson (12 July 2002). DON LETTS (HTML). popmatters. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.

[edit] External links

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Studio albums
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Related persons
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Persondata
NAME Letts, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Musician, Disc jockey, Movie producer.
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH