Don Letts
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherTemplate:Main otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other Donovan Letts (born 10 January 1956) is a British film director, disc jockey (DJ) and musician. Letts first came to prominence as the videographer for the Clash, directing several of their music videos. In 1984, Letts co-founded the band Big Audio Dynamite with former Clash lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist Mick Jones, acting as the band's sampler and videographer before departing the band in 1990.
Letts has also directed music videos for Musical Youth, the Psychedelic Furs, Fun Boy Three, the Pretenders and Elvis Costello as well as the feature documentaries The Punk Rock Movie (1978) and The Clash: Westway to the World (2000).
Biography
Letts was born on 10 January 1956 in London, and educated at Tenison's School in Kennington. In 1975, he ran the London clothing store Acme Attractions, selling "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long."[1] He 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 Hammersmith Odeon in June 1976, Letts was able to sneak into the hotel and spent the night talking to and befriending Marley.[2] By the mid-1970s Acme had quite a scene, attracting the likes of the Clash, Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry of Blondie and Bob Marley.
In a 2022 interview, Don Letts discussed growing up in London and the discrimination he faced in relation to Steve McQueen's anthology film series Small Axe.[3] Discussing mistreatment at the hands of police he remarked that:
Seeing the crowd at Acme, the then-promoter Andy Czezowski started up The Roxy, a fashionable nightclub in Covent Garden during the original outbreak of punk in England, so that people could go from the store and have some place to party. As most 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 creditedTemplate:By whom 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 extended play (EP) Black Market Clash (1980) and the compilation album Super Black Market Clash (1993). He was able to use the fame and money from DJ-ing and the Acme story to make his first film, The Punk Rock Movie (1978), using Super 8 camera footage.
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 was not for him, but continued to shoot material for The Punk Rock Movie (1978).[4]
Letts went to Jamaica for the first time when, after the Sex Pistols broke up, John Lydon decided to escape the media frenzy by going with entrepreneur Richard Branson to Jamaica. It was on this trip that Branson was inspired to start up Virgin's Frontline reggae record label.[1] Template:Quote
A portrait of Letts by photographer Dean Chalkley featured in the exhibition Return of the Rudeboy at Somerset House in the middle of 2014.[5][6]Template:Quote
In recognition of Letts' unique contribution to music, on 16 October 2013 he was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge of Merit.[7]
Personal life
Letts is married to Grace and the couple have two children. He also has a son and a daughter from a previous relationship.[8]
In September 2020, Letts and his wife Grace were featured on BBC Two's Gardeners' World, showing how they had combined their different tastes for plants and culture in their town garden in north west London.[9]
In 2022, Letts received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham.[10]
Creative projects
Music
In 1978, Letts recorded an EP, Steel Leg v the Electric Dread, with Keith Levene, Jah Wobble and Steel Leg. After Mick Jones was fired from the Clash, he and Letts founded Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) in 1984. In 1990 Letts formed Screaming Target.[11] As of 1 April 2009, Letts is presenting a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
In 2022 Letts' singles "Outta Sync" and "Wrong" were released in anticipation of his debut studio album Outta Sync produced by Gaudi and released on 29 September, 2023.
Books
In 2006, he published his autobiography, Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers.[12]
Films
Since his first film, The Punk Rock Movie (1978), Letts has expanded to doing documentaries and music videos for multiple bands. In 1997, he travelled to Jamaica to direct Dancehall Queen with Rick Elgood.[4] His film The Clash: Westway to the World (2000) won a Grammy Award in 2003. A new documentary, Rebel Dread (2022) about Letts was released discussing his story as a first generation Black British, cultural mover and shaker, filmmaker, and musician.
Filmography (as director)
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Punk Rock Movie | |
| 1997 | Dancing in the Streets: Planet Rock | TV movie |
| Dancehall Queen | ||
| 2000 | The Clash: Westway to the World | Documentary |
| 2003 | The Essential Clash | Video |
| One Love | ||
| 2004 | Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament | Video |
| 2005 | Punk: Attitude | TV movie |
| The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Gil Scott-Heron | ||
| Brother from Another Planet: Sun Ra | ||
| 2006 | The Making of All Mod Cons: The Jam | |
| Tales of Dr. Funkenstein: George Clinton | ||
| Rock It to Rio: Franz Ferdinand | ||
| 2007 | Soul Britannia | |
| 2008 | The Clash Live: Revolution Rock | TV movie[13] |
| 2009 | Carnival! | |
| 2010 | Strummerville | |
| 2011 | Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen | |
| 2012 | Subculture | |
| 2016 | The Story of Skinhead[14] |
Music videos
Quotes
"A good idea attempted is better than a bad idea perfected."[1] – Don Letts to The Guardian
References
External links
- Template:PAGENAMEBASE at AllMusic
- Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata
- Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Don Letts' Culture Clash Radio (BBC Radio 6 Music)
- Don Letts Homepage
- Gregory Mario Whitfield interview
- ‘There And Black Again’ book review [Greek]
- Rebel Dread (2022) (a documentary about Don Letts)
- Don Letts: “Jamaican Music Gave British Punk Its Distinct Identity” [1]
Template:Big Audio Dynamite Template:Navbox musical artist
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "Return of the Rude Boy" at Somerset House, 13 June– 25 August 2014.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "2013 BASCA Gold Badge Award Recipients Announced" Template:Webarchive, PPL, 16 September 2013.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Template:Cite video
- ↑ The Story of Skinhead with Don Letts, BBC Four.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1956 births
- Living people
- People from Brixton
- Big Audio Dynamite members
- English people of Jamaican descent
- The Clash
- English DJs
- Black British DJs
- Grammy Award winners
- People educated at Archbishop Tenison's Church of England School, Lambeth
- Black British rock musicians
- English music video directors
- BBC Radio 6 Music presenters
- Film directors from London
- DJs from London
- Basement 5 members