Don Letts

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Letts (1987)

Don Letts ( Donovan Letts ; born January 10, 1956 in London , England ) is a British musician, DJ , journalist and film director.

Life

Donovan Letts, a child of Jamaican immigrants, attended Tenison's School in Kennington, London . In 1975 he started working at Acme Attractions , a hip clothing and second hand shop that was located in a basement next to Antiquarius Market on King's Road , and soon became its figurehead. Here perverse the London youth scene, including members of distinguished British and New York punk - and New Wave bands like The Clash , The Sex Pistols , Chrissie Hynde , Deborah Harry , but also as more familiar Patti Smith and the Jamaican musician Bob Marley , with who Letts had befriended at a concert in June 1976.

Acme accountant Andy Czezowski recognized the potential of the clientele and founded the first London punk club The Roxy in 1976 . Letts became the store's first resident DJ. Since there was hardly any punk music pressed on record back then, he played much of his favorite dub reggae for a long time . Today he is assigned a decisive role in the mixture between punk and reggae . B. at The Clash.

Soon Letts had earned a certain reputation and a little money as a DJ and friend of well-known artists. He became the manager of the female punk band The Slits and completed his first film, The Punk Rock Movie (1978). In 1978 he drove for the first time to his parents' homeland, Jamaica, with Johnny Rotten and Richard Branson . That same year he also recorded his first EP, Steel Leg v the Electric Dread , with Keith Levene , Jah Wobble and Steel Leg. In 1984 he formed the band Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones , who had been released from his band The Clash .

In the 1990s and 2000s, Letts increasingly shot music clips and music-oriented documentaries, the most famous of which is punk: Attitude (2005). He won a Grammy Award in 2003 for Westway to the World via The Clash .

In 2006 he published his autobiography Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers . Since April 1, 2009, Letts has presented a weekly radio show on BBC 6 Music .

Films (as a director)

literature

  • Letts, Don; David Nobakht (2008). Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers (3rd edition ed.). London: SAF Publishing. ISBN 0-946719-99-3 . OCLC 181422771.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Thompson : London's Burning: True Adventures on the Frontlines of Punk, 1976-1977 . Chicago Review Press, Chicago Illinois 2009, ISBN 978-1-55652-769-2 . Page 15.
personal data
SURNAME Letts, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Letts, Donovan (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British musician, DJ, journalist and film director
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England