, Updated 25 May 2021, 11:58 BST
In his new autobiography,
There and Black Again, legendary DJ Don Letts documents the arc of his life, from his childhood as the Brixton-born son of Jamaican parents to his friendships with punk and reggae heavyweights including Joe Strummer and Bob Marley.
Photograph by Don Letts
When the dub-reggae scene collided with the punk in 1970s London, a new subculture was born whose influence has reverberated through the city to this day. And filmmaker and DJ Don Letts is widely credited as one of its pioneering figureheads.
In his own words, bass and reggae are “Jamaica’s greatest gifts to the world”. It’s a gift that Don a punk fanatic, too famously brought to London through his regular sets, mashing together the contrasting sounds at the then-eminent Covent Garden nightclub, The Roxy. The venue, an icon of the 1970s punk scene, witnessed the coming together of a marginalised white and Black youth a celebratory “cultural clash�