Don Letts filmmaker, musician, DJ, broadcaster, social commentator, husband and father - has always defied conformity. A British-born son of Windrush parents, he seamlessly pivoted between London's punk and reggae scenes earning his reputation as the 'Rebel Dread'.
In There and Black Again, Don Letts looks back on his exceptional life, which has seen him befriend Bob Marley after sneaking into his hotel, join The Clash's White Riot tour as manager of The Slits and become one of the UK's most highly regarded video directors just as the MTV boom hit.
Told in part as scenes from a movie shot on location in London, Kingston, New York City, Los Angeles, Windhoek, Salt Lake City and Goldeneye, There and Black Again co-stars a cast of hundreds, including Joe Strummer, John Lydon, Bob Marley, Chrissie Hynde, Chris Blackwell, Paul McCartney, Nelson Mandela, Keith Richards, Patti Smith, Chuck D., Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
With reflections on the Black Lives Matter movement and the highs and lows of personal relationships, this impactful book includes moments of civil unrest, live music, humour and political struggle. There and Black Again is the refreshing and often unexpected story of a man who has never been afraid to tread his own path.
<p>Don Letts is as old as rock 'n' roll (b. 1956) and has lived a life infused with music, style and attitude.</p><p>As DJ at London's premier punk venue The Roxy (Jan-March 1977) Don introduced punks to reggae, and Bob Marley to the punky-reggae party. He made his first film while working at The Roxy (<i>The Punk Rock Movie</i>) using a hand-held Super-8 camera.</p><p>Twenty years later Don directed the most successful Jamaican movie of all time, <i>Dancehall Queen<i>. In 1979 he directed the video for London Calling by The Clash, after which he became renowned as one of the world's most prolific and successful music video directors, going on to make more than 300 promos for artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, P.i.L and Ratt.</p><p>Don co-wrote four hugely successful and influential Big Audio Dynamite albums and toured the world in the 1980s, performing in front of thousands of people. The band played sell-out gigs around the world on a brief reunion tour in 2011.</p><p>An avid documentary maker, Don won a Grammy Award for <i>The Clash: Westway To The World</i>, in 2003, and his work has exhibited in The Kitchen N.Y.C, The Institute of Contemporary Art and The N.F.T in London. He was honoured at Brooklyn's BAM festival and The Milan Film festival (at which Fellini said he had the vision of a terrorist). His films on the life and work of, among others, Sun Ra, George Clinton and Gil Scott-Heron have earned him much acclaim. His series of documentaries on youth subcultures, particularly Skinhead have become academic study subjects and racked up millions of views on YouTube.</p><p>In 2018 he was given an honorary doctorate for his contribution to British culture. Don broadcasts a show on the BBC 6 Music channel and is much in demand around the world as a nightclub DJ. He is often called to comment on social and cultural matters by major news networks in the UK.</p><p>A former journalist and contributing editor at <i>Time Out</i> and <i>Vox</i> magazines, now editor, publisher and author, Mal Peachey worked with Don on the Grammy Award-winning documentary, <i>The Clash: Westway To The World</i>. He subsequently edited the transcripts of interviews he conducted with the band for the only official Clash biography, <i>The Clash by Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon</i> (Atlantic Press, 2008). Under the pseudonym Johnny Morgan he has written several best-selling illustrated rock books for Sterling Publishing in the US (including Beach Boys, Disco and Lady Gaga). As co-founder, publisher and editor of Rocket 88 Books he has commissioned, edited and published books with, among others, Dinosaur Jr., DEVO, Fairport Convention, Foreigner, Laurent Garnier and Jethro Tull. He has previously ghost-written two Sunday Times best-selling biographies.</p>
