A Positive Magazine. For Positive People. By Positive People.
TheOrator.Press Education Page. Music, Culture & Style Icon Don Letts Has Enjoyed A Number of Proud Moments In His Career And Tells Us He’s Not Done Yet. They Include Persuading Bob Marley That Punks & Reggae Had Common Ground, Having His Tropical Garden Featured On Gardener’s World, Being “A Starter For 10” Question On University Challenge, And Directing The 1997 Film Dance Hall Queen (Way Ahead of The Me Too Movement). Evergreen And Always Interesting He’s Currently Hosting A Series of Screenings of A New Film About 60s Reggae Group ‘The Cimarons’. October 2024
A Black History Month Special
Even So, This Second Generation Windrush Baby Is Not A Big Fan of Black History Month (BHM) As He Considers It “Tokenistic”. This Is Because – As He Puts It – He’s “Black All Year Round”. And It Appears American Basketball Superstar And Social Justice Activist Lebron James Agrees With Him.
We Ask Him What He Thinks of Black Men Voting For Trump (In The Wake of President Barack Obama Saying It’s “Not Acceptable” ). He Declines To Be Drawn (On The Basis That It’s Not His Territory) Except To Say “But There’s A Lot of Self-Loathing Out There”.
Don Letts Had Became Good Friends With Bob Marley Before Bob’s Untimely Death In 1981 Aged Just 36, Following A Cancer Diagnosis. Letts Has Recently Been Hosting A Serious of Film Screenings Featuring One of Marley’s Favourite Session Groups ‘The Cimarons’ Who Are Still Going Strong Today – Despite The Trials And Tribulations of The Music Business. Our Seperate Film News & Review of Their New Feature Length Documentary ‘Harder Than The Rock’ Is Also In This Month’s Special BHM Issue.
Letts, A Film Director, Music DJ, Radio Presenter, Commentator And Occassional Fashion Model, Released His First Solo Album Just Last Year – Aged 67. Generally Speaking He Doesn’t Like Labels, So That’s Pretty Academic Really. But It’s The Context In Which We’re Having Our First Meeting, After Hearing About The New Cimarons Film And His Involvement With It.
He Has Also Launched A Trio of Important Personal Projects of His Own Over The Last Few Years:
(I) His Aforementioned Album Was Released Just Before BHM Last Year And Produced In Collaboration With Gaudi @gaudimusic
(II) His Second Edition of The 2021 Memoir ‘There & Black Again’ This BHM, Which Is Now In Paperback With An Extra Chapter. Both Editions Published By Omnibus Press
(III) His Memoir Documentary, Which Premeired At The Soul Festival August 2021, In The Same Month As Jamaican Independence Day. @S.O.U.L.fest
Black History Month (BHM) In The USA Is In February And It’s October In The UK
I May Be On A Pension
But
I’m Still Well Dressed
Don Letts From The Title Track of His Debut Album
‘Out of Sync’
(2023)
[He Had A Cool Clothes Shop On The Kings Road At The Same Time As The Late Vivienne Westwood & Malcom McClaren Before Rents Skyrocketed]
He Has Achieved So Much In The Life He’s Built Around His Love of Music Since The Age of Just 14 That To Document It All Could Command A Magnitude of Material And Associated Research Worthy of A Degree Course In And of Itself.
So, Here TheOrator.Press (TO.P) Is Taking What We’re Calling ‘A Little Look At Letts‘ In Bite Size Pieces’ (Which May Well Yet Develop Into A Series). Album Cover Below By @johnbehets Featuring @lettsdon Led Photo Above By TO.P’s Photography Dept.
We Start With Meeting Him For The First Time For An Interview At His Home And Subsequently Discovering His Amazing Garden. Turns Out That It’s So Fabulous It Was Featured On The BBC’s ‘Gardeners World’ During Lockdown. We Can See Why. It’s A Bespoke Tropical Urban Paradise. Naturally, He Designed It Himself. Yet Just Another One of His Many Talents. Although He’s Genuinely Too Humble To Say So Himself.
University Challenge
BBC University Challenge 2022: Don’s Musical Collaborations Feature As A ‘Starter For 10’ With Bonus Points Available For The Right Answers To Three Follow Up Questions, He Told TO.P It Was A Very Proud Moment!
Don ‘The Original Don’ Letts Meet Plant Man ‘The Monty Don’ In September 2020. The ‘Og’Don Told TO.P It Was A Very Proud Moment
“In London, film director and musician Don Letts and his wife show how they have combined their different tastes for plants and culture in their town garden.” [Gardeners World 2020-Ep25: Sorry, this episode is not currently available BBC iPlayer]
Despite His D.I.Y Continuous Learning Don Declares That His Multiple Honourary Academic Awards Make Him Feel Like “A Bit of A Charleton”. He Has Genuinely Earnt Them. So This May Be A Classic Case of Imposter Syndrome.
Doing Well At School
&
Then Hearing ‘The Who’
Letts Did Well At School. Something of An Extraordinary Achievement When So Many Black Boys of His Generation Where Underestimated, Ill-Treated And Denied Opportunites By The British Education System Which Systematically Prejudged Them, Dismissed Them, ‘Mis-Labelled’ Them ‘Educationally Sub-Normal’ And Institutionalised Them Into ‘Sub-Standard Educational’ Hellholes As A Result. Episode Five of The Bold, Brave And Brilliant BBC Anthology Drama ‘Small Axe’ Called ‘Education’ By Oscar Winning Actor Steve McQueen Documents That. Currently Available On BBCiplayer
Letts Mentions During Our Interview That His Adversity To Labelling Stems From Some of His School Experiences. Sadly It Seems In Some Cases Not Much Has Changed When It Comes To The Attitude of The British Education System.
But The Boy Did Good Inspite The System Partly Because He Made D.I.Y Education A Priority. And He Believes In Continuous Learning.
He Went To The Then Highly Regarded ‘Archbishop Tennison School’ At The Oval, South London (Which Eventually Closed Down Summer 2023 Following Years of Decline & Becoming ‘An Academy’). He Studied Well And Was Expected To Progress Through The 6th Form. But Aged Just 14 He Heard A Track By Rock Group ‘The Who’ And Subsequently Went To See Them In Concert. At A Time When Kids Are Forced To Make Decisions About Their Preferred Careers He Decided A Career In Music Was For Him.
This Was The Early 1970s. Rock & Reggae Were Emerging On The Music Scence (Following Motown Magic, Beatlemania, Mary Quant Mini Skirts, And The Pill In The 1960s). He’s Notably Consistent In What He Say And ‘He Says What He Means And He Means What He Says’. Hence He Has Remained On The ‘Reggae And Rock Music Scene’ Ever Since. Lesson Learnt? Listen To Kids! @officialthewho
Virtually 50 Years After That Game-Changing Music Session As A Kid, Releasing His First Solo Album Just Last Year, Is Evidence of His Selflessness. He Has Focused Predominantly On Working With Innumerable Artists During The Intervening Years. Amongst Them Is Chrissy Hynde And The Pretenders, Who He Was Going To See In Concert At The London Palladium) In The Evening, After Our Interview.
That 1977 Police Photo
Photo BottomOpposite Coloumn:This Iconic Image of Lett’s At The 1977 Notting Hill Carnival With ‘A Very Heavy’ Police PresenceFeatures On A 1993 Clash Album Cover, His ‘Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers’ Book Cover And As Inspiration For The Title of His Current Radio Show (Culture Clash).
It Looks Like He’s Singlehandedly Taking Them On. However He Revealed To TheOrator.Press During Our BHM Interview Special That He Felt Like Something Was Brewing And So He Was Making A Move To ‘Get Out of Dodge’ Via A Side Street. That’s When A Blue Wall of Officers Suddenly Appeared Advancing From The Other Direction.
TheTwo Moments Intersected And An Iconic Photo Was Created By A Passing Photograper. TheOrator.PressTO.P Is Honoured To Have Heard The Truth FirsthandFrom ‘The Letts Legend’ Himself. Virtually 50 Years Hence.
Ahead of His Time On The Punk/Reggae Collaboration & Pro-Active Anti-Discrimination
There Was Also The Late Sinead O’Connor, About Whose Passing Last Summer He Says Remains “Raw”. He Directed Her Last Music Video In 2020 (A Protest Song In Support of Black Lives Matter To Whom He Says, She Made A Substantial Associate Donation) @oconnor.sinead@lettsdon
There Was Also Sir Paul McCartney, Who Also Worked With The Aformentioned Cimarons. Fellow Beatle John Lennon Was Also A Big Fan of Reggae Having Lived In Jamaica For A Hot Minute In The 1970s (Which He References In The Cimarons Docu-Film) @paulmccartney
There Was The Clash @the_clash. Letts And Mick Jones From The Clash Eventually Became Members of The Group Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) In 1984 After Jones Was Outsted From The Clash In 1983. They Had Several Albums And Iterations And Last Performed Live In 2021. John ‘Johnny Rotten’ Lydon Lead Singer of The Legendary Punk Group The Sex Pistols Travelled With Don On His First Visit To Jamaica. Suffice To Say The Trip Had Mixed Outcomes As Revealed In The Aforementioned Rebel Dread Film.
The Name Suits Him And Has Stuck With After It Was Given To Him By Attributed By The Late ‘Ari’ of The All Female Punk Group ‘The Slits’. He Tells Us That He Was With Her Sharing What We’ll Call A Certain Smoke When His Rasta Friends Protested About Her Being There And Him Sharing With Her. Ahead of His Time When It Comes To Proactive Action Against Discrimination He Chose To Leave The Particular Venue. With Her. That’s How He Got His Famous Moniker. The Slits Were The Original Girl Power And Don Was Their Manager. @thelegendaryslits
Converse To That Smoking Experience With His Fellow Rastas He Managed To Convert Bob Marley To Understanding That The Punk Music Movement And The Reggae Music Movement Could Be Allies As They Were Both Rebels Against The Establishment In Their Own Ways. So Much So That Bob Would Eventually Release Punk Reggae Party Under Island Records In 1977 (See Photo Above).
The Two Had Met In 1975 Following Bob’s Career Making Performance At The Lyceum Theatre In London’s West End (At Which Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones Was In Attendance As Were of The Great & The Good of The Contemporary Fashion & Music Scene). Don Managed To Make It To Bob’s Post Gig Hotel Along With A Number of Other Gig Attendees And From There On Formed A Lasting Friendship. Despite Bob Initially Not Being Keen On Don’s Punk-Style Clothes. But He Turned Him Around. Something About Which He Is Immensley Proud.
In 1976 He Was Resident DJ At The Roxy Music Club Situated At 41-43 Neal Street, Covent Garden. Previously Co. Owned By Reggae Star John Holt With Producer Tony Ashleigh And Called The Chaguaramas (Reportedly After Trinidad’s Chaguarama Bay), It Was Bought By Another Co.ownership In December 1976, This Time Headed Up By Generation X Manager Andrew Czezowski Who Staged A Series of Punk Concerts Which Letts Filmed Whilst Working There. Artists Included Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Clash, The Heartbreakers And Generation X.
Virtually Forty Years Later, In 2017 A Blue Plaque Was Installed At The Site To Honour Its History, Through The Seven Dials Trust @thesevendialstrust Speedos International Swimwear Have Now Owned And Occupied The Site Since 2001. It’s On The Main Stripe of The Neal’s Yard Area In Covent Garden And Remains A Site That Is Usually Very Busy. Although It’s Quite A Different Crowd These Days.
Impressively Lett’s Has Retained Great Versatility And Diversity Regarding The Artists He’s Worked With, And At The Same Time Hung Onto His Own Integrity And Cultural Identity. He Remains His Own Man And Yet A Man of The People As He Dances Towards His 70s. Not Easy To Do But Pretty Admirable And Cool For The Rare Few Who Can Find The Balance.
I’m Still Hustling.
It’s A Creative Hustle
Don Letts, Talking To TheOrator.Press October 24th 2024
He’s Just A Naturally Inclusive Person And This Organically Makes His Instagram Page One of The Most Authentic, Interesting And Diverse To Journey Through And Find All Kinds of Positive Inspiration @lettsdon
The Musical Track of A Generation
In 1982 He Directed The Music Video For A Record Which Became Central To The Positive Progession of Cultural Diversity In Britain. The Catchy Fun Reggage Tune “Pass The Dutchie (On The Lefthand Side)” By Teenage & Junior Band ‘Musical Youth’ Reached No.1 In The UK Charts And No.10 In The US Over Forty Years Ago.
Now, Like Kate Bush’s 1985 Hit ‘Running Up That Hill’ It Has Ressurged In Popularity After Being Featured In The Modern Day Netflix Series ‘Stranger Things’ Creating A Whole New Generation of Fans And Bringing Comfort And Nostalgia To The Original Ones.
For Letts Music Was A Way To Identify, Escape, Establish Style And Also Rebel. He Believes The 1982 ‘Pass The Duchie’ Record Was To His Generation What Millie Small’s 1964 ‘My Boy Lollipop’ Song Was To The Windrush Generation.
Punk And Reggae Rolling Together Was About ‘Fight And Unite’ Against The Establishment And Racism. Although As Lett’s Says, In Any Social Group There Will Be A Percentage of People Who Want To Spoil Things For Others So Not Everyone Was Always On Board.
A Head of His Time With Dance Hall Queen
But It’s His 1997 Film ‘Dance Hall Queen’ Dealing With Youth From A Totally Different Perspective That He Tells Us He Is Most Proud of.
Once Again (Like The Smoking Incident) Dance Hall Queen Highlights That He Was Ahead of His Time.
The Film Dealt With The Issue of ‘Sexual Harrassment’ And ‘Child Abuse’ Long Before The @MeTooMvmnt.
Virtually 30 Years Later A Post @MeTooMvmnt Re-Make Seems Worth Considering.
Still Spinning
He’s Always Had The Cool Factor And At 67 He’s Still Got It And Is Still Flaunting It. Every Saturday Between 10pm – 12pm On His BBC Radio 6 Music Show ‘Culture Clash’ (See Opposite). Don’s Dub of The Day Is From Italia Saturday October 12 2024
You Are Always Educating Yourself.
You Have To Stay Open To What The World Has To Offer.
Especially If It Has A Good Baseline.
Don Letts
On Releasing His Debute Album September 2023 It’s Called Outta Sync As That’s How He Was Feeling In The Midst of The Pandemic
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