Don Letts
{{short description|British film director}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2010}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Don Letts
| image = Bad-don-letts-2-np.jpg
| caption = Letts during his tenure with Big Audio Dynamite, San Francisco, 1987
| birth_name = Donovan Letts
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1956|01|10}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date =
| origin =
| genre = {{hlist|Post-punk|alternative dance|dance-rock|funk rock|hip hop|reggae fusion}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Disc jockey|film director}}
| years_active = 1975–present
| label =
| past_member_of = {{hlist|Big Audio Dynamite|Basement 5|Screaming Target}}
| website = [https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/don_letts/ Don's BBC6 show]
}}
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 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."{{cite web |date= 24 October 2001|url = https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,4283671,00.html|title=Dem crazy baldheads are my mates|work=The Guardian|access-date=16 December 2007 |last= Don Letts}} 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.{{cite web|date=24 May 2007|url=http://web.bobmarley.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070524&contentid=11539|title=Don Letts: In his own words - Special to BobMarley.com|access-date=16 December 2007|last=Don Letts|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928083709/http://web.bobmarley.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070524&contentid=11539|archive-date=28 September 2007}} By the mid-1970s Acme had quite a scene, attracting the likes of the Clash, Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry 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 series Small Axe.{{Cite web |title=Then and Now: Black Britain through the eyes of Jeshi and Don Letts |url=https://theface.com/culture/small-axe-steve-mcqueen-jeshi-don-letts-black-britain |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=The Face |date=19 November 2020 |language=en-gb}} Discussing mistreatment at the hands of police he remarked that:
{{quote|'A lot of us took that for normal. It was just what we had to deal with. Back in those Mangrove days… There weren’t no culturally enlightened policemen. It was the Wild West and trust me: we weren’t the cowboys.'|source=}}
Seeing the crowd at Acme, the 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. 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 credited{{by whom|date=October 2014}} 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 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).
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).{{cite web |date=12 July 2002|url = http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/letts-don-020712.shtml|title = DON LETTS|publisher = popmatters| access-date = 16 December 2007 |last=Charlotte Robinson }}
Letts went to Jamaica for the first time when, after the Sex Pistols broke up, Johnny Rotten 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.
{{quote|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}}
A portrait of Letts by photographer Dean Chalkley featured in the exhibition Return of the Rudeboy at Somerset House in the middle of 2014.[https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/return-of-the-rudeboy "Return of the Rude Boy"] at Somerset House, 13 June– 25 August 2014.{{Cite web|url=http://returnoftherudeboy.com/|title=Return Of The Rudeboy|website=Returnoftherudeboy.com|access-date=18 May 2020}}{{quote|In a conservative culture that feels like punk never happened, the time is right for Return of the Rudeboy.| Don Letts}}
In recognition of Letts' unique contribution to music, on 16 October 2013 he was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge of Merit.[http://www.ppluk.com/About-Us/News/2013-Gold-Badge-Award-Recipients-Announced/ "2013 BASCA Gold Badge Award Recipients Announced"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118222609/http://www.ppluk.com/About-Us/News/2013-Gold-Badge-Award-Recipients-Announced/ |date=18 November 2017 }}, PPL, 16 September 2013.
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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/21/don-letts-dj-family-values|title = My family values: Don Letts| website=TheGuardian.com |date = 20 August 2010}}
In September 2020 Letts and his wife Grace were featured on BBC's Gardeners' World, showing how they had combined their different tastes for plants and culture in their town garden in north west London.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m7pq |title=Gardeners' World: Episode 25, 2020 |publisher=bbc.co.uk |date=4 September 2020 |access-date=26 February 2021}}
In 2022, Letts received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham University.{{Cite web |title=News - Famous faces join University of Nottingham's winter graduation ceremonies - University of Nottingham |url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/famous-faces-join-university-of-nottinghams-winter-graduation-ceremonies |access-date=2022-12-17 |website=www.nottingham.ac.uk}}
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 in 1984. In 1990 Letts formed Screaming Target.{{cite web |url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/don-letts/biography/|title = Don Letts Biography| access-date = 3 March 2012}} As of 1 April 2009, Letts is presenting a [https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/don_letts/ weekly show] on BBC Radio 6 Music.
in 2022 Don's singles 'Outta Sync' and 'Wrong' were released in anticipation of his debut 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.{{cite book |last=Letts |first=Don |author-link=Don Letts |author2=David Nobakht |title=Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers |orig-year=22 January 2007 |edition=3rd |year=2008 |publisher=SAF Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-0-946719-99-0 |oclc=181422771 }}
=Films=
Since his first movie, 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. His film 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)==
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Notes |
|---|
| style="text-align:center"| 1978
| data-sort-value="Punk Rock Movie"| The Punk Rock Movie | |
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center"| 1997
| Dancing in the Streets: Planet Rock | TV movie |
| Dancehall Queen
| |
| style="text-align:center"| 2000
| data-sort-value="Clash Westway to the World"| The Clash: Westway to the World | Documentary |
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center"| 2003
| data-sort-value="Essential Clash"| The Essential Clash | Video |
| One Love
| |
| style="text-align:center"| 2004
| Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament | Video |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center"| 2005
| TV movie |
| data-sort-value="Revolution Will Not Be Televised"| The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Gil Scott-Heron
| |
| Brother from Another Planet: Sun Ra
| |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center"| 2006
| data-sort-value="Making of All Mode Cons"| The Making of All Mod Cons: The Jam | |
| Tales of Dr. Funkenstein: George Clinton
| |
| Rock It to Rio: Franz Ferdinand
| |
| style="text-align:center"| 2007
| Soul Britannia | |
| style="text-align:center"| 2008
| data-sort-value="Clash Live Revolution Rock"| The Clash Live: Revolution Rock |
| style="text-align:center"| 2009
| Carnival! | |
| style="text-align:center"| 2010
| Strummerville | |
| style="text-align:center"| 2011
| data-sort-value="Rock and Roll Exposed"| Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen | |
| style="text-align:center"| 2012
| Subculture | |
| style="text-align:center"| 2016
| The Story of Skinhead[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07yv0qj The Story of Skinhead with Don Letts], BBC Four. | |
==Music videos==
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Artist |
|---|
| style="text-align:center"| 1977
| "White Riot" |
| style="text-align:center"| 1978
| "Tommy Gun" | The Clash |
| style="text-align:center"| 1979
| "London Calling" | The Clash |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center"| 1980
| "Sister Europe" |
| "Bankrobber"
| The Clash |
| "The Call Up"
| The Clash |
| style="text-align:center"| 1981
| The Clash |
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center"| 1982
| "Rock the Casbah" | The Clash |
| "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
| The Clash |
| "Pass the Dutchie" |
| "Back on the Chain Gang" |
| "Youth of Today"
| Musical Youth |
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center"| 1983
| "The More I See (The Less I Believe)" |
| "Got to Have You Back" |
| "War Party" |
| "Everyday I Write the Book" |
| "Party Train" |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center"| 1984
| "One Love" | Bob Marley and the Wailers{{Cite web|url=http://worlds-enders.blogspot.com/|title=Worldsenders|website=Worlds-enders.blogspot.com|access-date=18 May 2020}} |
| "Waiting in Vain" |
| "Round and Round"
| Ratt |
| style="text-align:center"| 1985
| "The Bottom Line" |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center"| 1986
| "E=MC2" | Big Audio Dynamite |
| "Medicine Show"
| Big Audio Dynamite |
| "C'mon Every Beatbox"
| Big Audio Dynamite |
| style="text-align:center"| 1987
| "V. Thirteen" | Big Audio Dynamite |
| style="text-align:center"| 1988
| "Just Play Music!" | Big Audio Dynamite |
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center"| 1989
| "James Brown" | Big Audio Dynamite |
| "She Gives Me Love" |
| style="text-align:center"| 1990
| "Get Up, Stand Up" |
| style="text-align:center"| 1994
| "Deep Forest" |
| style="text-align:center"| 1995
| "In the Name of the Father" |
| style="text-align:center"| 1996
| "Don't Take My Kindness for Weakness" | The Heads with Shaun Ryder |
Quotes
"A good idea attempted is better than a bad idea perfected." – Don Letts to The Guardian
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000181786}}
- {{discogs artist}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0504824}}
- [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0072pzt Don Letts' Culture Clash Radio] (BBC Radio 6 Music)
- [https://www.donletts.com Don Letts Homepage]
- [https://www.3ammagazine.com/musicarchives/2003/jun/interview_don_letts.html Gregory Mario Whitfield interview ]
- [https://strummerradio.com/index.php/news/books/447-don-letts
‘There And Black Again’ book review [Greek] ] - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9174746/ Rebel Dread (2022)] (a documentary about Don Letts)
- Don Letts: “Jamaican Music Gave British Punk Its Distinct Identity” [https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/13931/don-letts-interview-rebel-dreads-review-2022]
{{Big Audio Dynamite}}
{{The Clash}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Letts, Don}}
Category:Big Audio Dynamite members
Category:English people of Jamaican descent
Category:People educated at Archbishop Tenison's Church of England School, Lambeth
Category:Black British rock musicians
Category:English music video directors
Category:BBC Radio 6 Music presenters