Soul Cellar

NOW & THEN PRESENTS

DON LETTS

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

SATURDAY 5TH FEB 2011 || 8PM- 3AM
TICKETS £8 FROM RESKUE SKATE SHOP & SOULCELLAR.COM
18+ ID REQUIRED, ROAR

AFTER WHAT WAS UNDOUBTEDLEY ONE OF THE BEST NIGHTS WE HAVE EVER SEEN HERE AT THE SOUL CELLAR LAST TIME HE PLAYED, WE ARE ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED TO WELCOME BACK THE LEGENDARY DON LETTS TO GRACE THE DECKS FOR A SECOND TIME...

Letts was born in London, England and educated at Tenison's School in Kennington. In 1975, Letts ran the trendy London clothing store Acme Attractions selling, "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long." Letts 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 Odeon in Hammersmith (June, 1976) he 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 all the like of The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry and Bob Marley.

“Marley ... come by because he knew he could get a good draw from the thriving black-market action that also went on in Acme.”
— Don Letts

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 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 album Super Black Market Clash. He was able to use the fame and money from DJing 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.

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 Richard Branson to Jamaica. It was on this trip that Branson was inspired to start up Virgin's Frontline reggae record label.

“ 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