Description:
Starring the Grammy award winning filmmaker, rock star, dj, radio broadcaster, social commentator, husband and father Don Letts, There And Black Again takes in many lives and places.
It is written as scenes from a movie shot on location in London, Kingston, New York, Los Angeles, Windhoek, Salt Lake City, and Goldeneye. Co-starring a cast of hundreds, including Joe Strummer, John Lydon, Bob Marley, Chrissie Hynde, Chris Blackwell, Paul McCartney, Nelson Mandela, Keith Richards, Pattie Smith, Chuck D., McLaren, and Westwood, etc., it takes in major cultural movements from skinhead through punk to Black Lives Matter, and includes scenes of civil unrest, live music, humour, and political struggle.
There And Black Again describes in clear-eyed detail a life of work and love, of battles against prejudice and negativity, of failures and great successes. It describes a six-decade journey through sound and vision which has left a unique body of award-winning work in film, television, and music.
Brief description:
A former journalist and contributing editor at Time Out and Vox magazines, now editor, publisher, and author, Mal Peachey worked with Don on the Grammy Award-winning documentary, The Clash: Westway To The World. He subsequently edited the transcripts of interviews he conducted with the band for the only official Clash biography, The Clash by Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon (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 DJ at London's premier punk venue The Roxy Don Letts introduced punks to reggae, and Bob Marley to the punky-reggae party. He made his first film while working at The Roxy (The Punk Rock Movie) using a hand-held Super-8 camera. Twenty years later Don directed the most successful Jamaican movie of all time, Dancehall Queen. 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.
Review Quotes:
"Like the crowning unmade episode of Steve McQueen's Small Axe - lavished with the author's cinematic eye for detail" Mojo
"It's a hoot of a book...but also probes the highs and lows of Letts's personal life and offering pertinent insights into race." The Irish Times
"Magnificent piece of work" Please Kill Me
"The Don's tale, upgraded, expanded, marinated in late-life wisdom... reflecting on a remarkable life, against the backdrop of covid turmoil and Black Lives Matter. Letts expands on everything... even opening up on relationship roller-coasters. The fullest picture yet of the man behind the shades" Classic Rock