by Robert Dunstan

Don Letts, the London-born documentary filmmaker and DJ and member of Big Audio Dynamite, has come downunder to present a multi-media event which will be followed by a reggae DJ set. Don, who will also be reading excerpts form his autobiography, Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers, will come armed with a bunch of his filmed works which include the Grammy award winning Westway To The World (a film about The Clash) and a recent BBC documentary, Soul Britannia, which highlights black music in the UK. We speak over the telephone to Don about his career and begin by asking what he has in store for us.

“I guess you could file it under the heading of ‘Cultural Exchange’,” Don laughs over the other end of a telephone from his Sydney hotel room. “I’m going to be showing quite a bit of my film work but I’m throwing that open to the audience. I’ve brought quite a collection of stuff so I’m going to ask what they might like to see. So let’s see, I’ve got a documentary on Gil Scott-Heron and there’s one on Sun Ra and another one on George Clinton. And there’s something I did quite recently for the BBC called Soul Brittania that kind of looks at the impact of black music on the UK. There’s also a feature film I shot in Jamaica and there’s The Clash’s Westway To The World. And so on and so forth.

“And then there will be bit of reading from my autobiography because that’s just come out and, to round off the evening, I’ll be doing a DJ session. And that will be very much in the tradition of the reggae DJ sets I used to do at [London’s] The Roxy Club back in 1977.”

Will it just be excerpts from the various films?

“No, I’m hoping that people will sit through one or two complete films. They are not the kind of thing you can just take a few sound-bytes from. And then I’ll be taking a Q&A. So it’ll be good value. Very good value for money.”

Does Soul Britannia, screened on BBC TV earlier this year, highlight the Two-Tone ska era?

“No, not at all,” Don says. “Soul Britannia was part of three programs and mine looks at black music from the late ’80s up to where we are today. So there’s people like Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B, Goldy, Daddy G from Massive Attack, Norman Jay and all that but not any of the Two-Tone era.”

Don, who is pictured on the front cover of The Clash’s 10-inch vinyl release, Black Market Clash, was last in Australia to promote his film Punk: Attitude which went on to win some major awards.

“The thing I liked more so than winning any awards was that a lot of younger people picked up on the fact that I wasn’t really trying to create a nostalgic piece but was trying to push things forward. It’s an on-going dynamic and part of the lineage of counter culture and is there to be accessed by young people if they are brave enough to do so. I mean, punk – whether it be Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis or The Pistols or The Clash – is their birthright.”

Does a punk attitude exist today?

“That’s a good question – and an interesting one - and while I can’t speak for what’s happening in Australia, you might now think that in the UK and America punk never happened. The whole celebrity thing – Big Brother and all the reality shows on television – means that music now means more about getting kids to change their brand of sneakers rather than their minds. And I’m about changing minds.

“So that punk spirit is desperately needed in America and the UK as a kind of backlash against… Oh, what shall we call it? How about, ‘passive consumerism’? If you want to be in the top 40 charts or on MTV these days, chances are you’re not going be all that radical.”

How long did you spend putting together your autobiography, Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers?

“Well, that came about at a time when I had two other things going on in my life. One was making Soul Britannia which looks at the impact of black music on the UK and it got me thinking about the impact on people like me who are first generation, British-born blacks. There’s an odd duality and it wasn’t all one-way traffic because we got something out of it as well. It was also the 200th anniversary of the British slave trade and that put me in a reflective mood as well. It made me think about not only what we’d achieved as a race but what I had achieved as an individual.

“So all that prompted me to write my autobiography about my journey over the last 30 or 40 years,” he added.

How long did you spend putting together your autobiography?

“Oh, back to your original question,” Don laughs. “It was quite difficult because I like to keep moving forward and can hardly remember what I did last week let along 30 years ago. So I had to go round to a lot of friends and acquaintances and get them to remind me of what I’d done. And that was kinda cool actually as I found out that this Don Letts guy was kind of interesting. There were some things I didn’t even remember. I’d completely forgotten. Remember, I’m 52-years-old so I’ve been round the block a bit and indulged in a bit of self-abuse over the years.

“But I’m a great believer in moving forward. I think it’s important that you believe in what you are doing at the moment and not think about what you’ve done,” Don concludes.

Don Letts will present his multi-media event at Palace Nova on Fri May 16 followed by a DJ set. Letts will also make an appearance at Big Star in Rundle St from 6pm that same day to read excerpt from his autobiography. For more on Don Letts, please see Bob’s Bits on page six of this issue.