The Specials Achieved Seven Consecutive Top Ten Hits Over Two Years At The End of The 70s & Beginning of The 80s, As Well As Having Their Own Record Label 2-Tone. They Were A Multi-Cultural Anti-Racist Band And A Protest Group Protesting Against Police Brutality, Thatcher’s Government And Racist Comments By Some Other – Suprising – Musicians. Including, Eric Clapton – Despite Having Recorded I Shot The Sheriff By Bob Marley. And David Bowie Who Later Married African Model Iman. He Claimed His Racist Outpourings Were The Result of Indulgencing In Drugs, The Supernatural And Friedrich Nietzsche (A German Scholar Said To Be The Theorist Behind The Nazis New World Order During The 1930s And Early 40s. Either He Was A White Supremacist And An Anti-Semite or His Theories Were Horrifically Misinterpreted).
DJ Don Letts, Born In 1956 Is Presenting Some of The Special Film Screenings And Hosting Q & A Sessions With The Cimarons Afterwards. He Has Made A Documentary About Skinheads (‘The Story of Skinhead’ 2016). We Ask Him About The Involvment of Skinheads With Reggae Music Because It Can Be Confusing.
“There Were ‘The Fashion Skinheads’ Who Grew Up With Us As Kids In 1968 And Liked SKA (‘Trojan Skinheads’s Who Followed The Mods). Then Later There Were ‘The Facist Skinheads’. Suggs And Madness Had To Repeatedly Distance Themselves From The Latter.”
That Said [Cont’d From Page 1], This Film Was Made With Support From The BFI (British Film Institute), Premiered At The Sheffield Crucible Theatre During The Sheffield Doc Fest And Has Generally Gone Down A Storm. And We Can See Why. It’s Well Deserved. Long Overdue, Very Moving And An Inspiration To Us All. This Is A Story That Needs To Be Recognised, Told & Re-Told. @sheffdocfest bfi.org.uk
When We Recently Interviewed Don Letts, Film Director, Music Video Director, DJ, Radio Presenter (BBC Radio 6 Music ‘Culture Clash’ 10-12pm Saturday Nights) And Raconteur, We Mentioned That We’ve Come Across Claims That SKA Millie Smalls Sadly Died In Poverty Having Been Cheated Out of Musical Royalties, Despite Her Hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’ Still Being A Popular SKA Favourite Today. She Was With Island Records (Later Merged With Universal) And Signed By Founder Chris Blackwell, Who Letts Reveals He Saw In Jamaica A Month Ago. @lettsdon
He Says It’s News To Him As He Once Presented Her With A Huge Cheque (Physically, As In Oversized For Presentation Purposes And Monetarily In Terms of Pounds And Pence Back Then) For £10,000. That of Course Does Not Mean That She Was Protected With Regard To Her Right To Royalties. He Accepts The Point And For Now We Agree To Disagree On The Matter. We Shall Be Looking Into It Further. Given How Central That Track Is To The Windrush Story Though, It Would Be An Absolute Scandal If True. We’ll Come Back To You On That One.
Meantime We Come Back To The Cimarons And Ask How He Got Involved In Hosting Some of The Recent Screenings. The Filmmakers Asked Me He Replies, Saying That He Agreed Because He Felt The Cimarons Deserved More Publicity And More Money Given Their Many Years of Working In The Industry Without Due Recognition.
We Live. We Learn. We Do Better Next Time. Even If That Must Be Now Or The Next Generation.Lessons To Be Learnt? Showbusiness Is A Construct of Two Words. Show. And Business. Both Must Be Taken Care of. As They Saying Goes ‘One Hand Washes The Other’. ‘The Show Must Go On’ They Say. OK. But Business Is Business Too! For Instance, In 1983 Two Years After Bob Marley Left This Earth Blackwell Released The ‘Legends’ Album. It Was The Most Successful Reggae Album For The Company Ever! @universal
During Our Interview With Letts We Are Again Reminded of This As We Ask Him Why His Album Release Was Delayed Last Year For A Number of Months (Something We Noted From A Number of Posts On His Instagram Page). His Answer Is A Shocker. (See Seperate Article In This Month’s Issue).
Duppy Rum & Coke At An Everyman Cinema During A Screening of One Love: The Bob Marley Movie. Released February 14 2024
Bob Marley’s ‘Duppy Conqueror’ Is Just One of The Innumerable Tracks For Which The Cimarons Provided Session Music. The Sound of Birds Cooing Provides An Identifiable Musical Signature. Bob’s Message In This Revered Track Is Be Strong, Resilient, And Self-Determined Enough To Fight One’s Inner Demons In The Face of Harrassment And Oppression.
It Featured On The 1973 Burning Album (His Last With The Wailers).
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