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).

Early life Letts was born on 10 January 1956 in London, and educated at Tenison's School in Kennington.

Career In 1975, he ran the London clothing store Acme Attractions, selling "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and playing dub reggae all day long." 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. 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, Letts discussed growing up in London and the discrimination he faced in relation to Steve McQueen's anthology film series Small Axe. 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 credited 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 store 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).

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.

A portrait of Letts by photographer Dean Chalkley featured in the exhibition Return of the Rudeboy at Somerset House in the middle of 2014."Return of the Rude Boy" at Somerset House, 13 June– 25 August 2014.

In recognition of Letts' unique contribution to music, on 16 October 2013 he was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge of Merit."2013 BASCA Gold Badge Award Recipients Announced" , 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.

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.

In 2022, Letts received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham.

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. 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. In 2021 Omnibus Press published There And Black Again, co-written with Mal Peachey.

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. 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 2009 Carnival! 2010 Strummerville 2011 Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen 2012 Subculture 2016 The Story of SkinheadThe Story of Skinhead with Don Letts, BBC Four.

Music videos Year Title Artist 1977 "White Riot" The Clash 1978 "Tommy Gun" The Clash 1979 "London Calling" The Clash 1980 "Sister Europe" The Psychedelic Furs "Bankrobber" The Clash "The Call Up" The Clash 1981 "This Is Radio Clash" The Clash 1982 "Rock the Casbah" The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go" The Clash "Pass the Dutchie" Musical Youth "Back on the Chain Gang" The Pretenders "Youth of Today" Musical Youth 1983 "The More I See (The Less I Believe)" Fun Boy Three "Got to Have You Back" The Undertones "War Party" Eddy Grant "Everyday I Write the Book" Elvis Costello and the Attractions "Party Train" The Gap Band 1984 "One Love" Bob Marley and the Wailers "Waiting in Vain" Bob Marley and the Wailers "Round and Round" Ratt 1985 "The Bottom Line" Big Audio Dynamite 1986 "E=MC2" Big Audio Dynamite "Medicine Show" Big Audio Dynamite "C'mon Every Beatbox" Big Audio Dynamite 1987 "V. Thirteen" Big Audio Dynamite 1988 "Just Play Music!" Big Audio Dynamite 1989 "James Brown" Big Audio Dynamite "She Gives Me Love" The Godfathers 1990 "Get Up, Stand Up" The Wailers 1994 "Deep Forest" Deep Forest 1995 "In the Name of the Father" Black Grape 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

External links

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”