Film Review: Rebel Dread
“Punk Rock is a spirit that can inform whatever you do. It’s about how you do what you do. Being prepared to turn left when everyone else is going right, not taking anything at face value, Punk Rock gives you the license to be all you can be. It’s about turning problems in to assets. As a first generation, British born black, that’s something I know a lot about.”
Cue “London Calling” by The Clash …
You will have seen his work. Honestly. If you have any interest at all in Punk you will have seen something that has the fingerprints of Don Letts on it. When I say “Punk” I mean “Punk Rock“. As in 1977 and all that, particularly The Clash. Famously, he was there at ground zero for Punk as a sort of film maker, documentarian and reggae DJ hanging out with Mick, Joe and the rest of the spiky haired ‘erberts of that golden era of music. Socially, politically and culturally however, late 70s UK, in particular London where our tale begins, was hardly what you’d call a “golden age”. Don Letts has famously down the years captured it all and spun the tales of Punks on the Kings Road, Rastas and riots, carnivals and chaos ad finitum, discussing how the disenfranchised working class kids from both the black and white communities came together to stand up and be counted against the racists and a society that didn’t give them any hope of any future. The Punky Regage party was kicking off and Don Letts was there to document it all with his video camera. What of the man himself though? This film, although it contains many scenes and moments you will have seen before – especially if you’ve seen the recent “Dread Meets Punk Rockers” on SKY Arts or wherever – gives Letts centre stage and focuses not just on the sights and sounds he captured but on Don Letts himself. A look at the man behind the camera and an intoxicating adventure it is too.
In his early days as a “Bowie Freak” standing in the dole line and realizing that black and white kids in the queue for dole were the same kids who were on the dance floor together later that night, Letts wondered what his role in it all could be. The young Letts, looking the absolute epitome of early 70s cool dipped his toe in the cultural waters – selling jeans, fashion, meeting Vivienne and Malcolm, seeing Lou Reed and The Who, hearing Marvin Gaye – before settling on playing Reggae records to the punks and recording everything on his trusty camera and becoming Don Letts Film Maker that we know today. The early part of the film deals with his youth and builds up to the sea change in British politics and all the “rivers of blood” bullshit and Police oppression that opened up a storm of racism and reached a boiling point with the infamous Notting Hill riot. Dark days indeed but the explosion of Punk Rock offered rock n’ roll and rebellion to many and as there “ain’t no Punk records” about, Letts would spin his treasured Reggae vinyl in between the likes of The Damned, Adverts and Clash and well, you know the rest. It’s all been documented by Letts himself and many others but this film talks about the man behind the lens and what he was doing. A host of talking heads are introduced telling us what Don Letts was up to whilst recording incendiary footage of The Clash et al which, I’ll be honest, makes an interesting change.
The next part of “Rebel Dread” is fantastic. Dealing with the “original” wave of Punks but from a black perspective is a refreshing take on a well trodden path. Letts explains, mischievously, how his mates all figured the Punk Rock scene offered up a new, previously untapped market for selling weed and another, similarly untapped market of wild women! Talking about the ‘77 Punk scene as a mixing of the tribes – Punks and Dreads – is pretty inspiring stuff. Unite and fight the powers that be, instead of each other. The footage, is of course amazing – those early Punk days hold an almost mythical quality and seeing ferocious live sets by the Clash, misbehaving Slits and Siousxie and co at the Roxy will never get boring, but here we see the “after the gig” and “back to Don’s flat for smoking drinking and spinning records” footage which is just as intoxicating. Thankfully, Letts took his camera everywhere and it was always switched on!
The second act is maybe less engrossing, but fascinating as a story less told. Post Punk and Post Pistols, Letts jetted off to Jamaica with enfant terrible John Lydon and found that it wasn’t the romantic utopia he imagined. Lydon looks awesome in these lesser known moments, his devilish and impish glare hiding the master plan for what will become Public Image Limited. Likewise, dashing off to New York City with The Clash and running in to year dot of NY Hip Hop, Letts was clearly, always in the right place at the right time. Again, it’s the footage here that is not so familiar and seeing The Clash and B.A.D. going their separate ways is very evocative stuff, especially set against the backdrop of Don Lett’s marital issues. In the final act, there’s plenty of stuff that you may well not be aware of as Lett’s becomes the go to man for a wide range of British artists wanting music videos. Musical Youth, Elvis Costello, Maxi Priest, Black Grape(!) and even metallers Ratt! It’s clear there is far more to Don Lett’s than that fella off of the cover of The Clash LP that filmed all the Punk bands. What I take away from the film is that he is defiant and brave black man. A British Black man who, for once, is given the chance to talk about himself and not those that he gave a voice to. Lett’s is a man who is convinced of the power of culture to change the world. The power to make the world a better place. DJing his records, creating art, film, music, TV … he’s had a go at it all and, in his words created art that must “Justify the space it occupies”. His work certainly does that, and while old grainy footage of the Pistols and Clash is of course, always welcome round here, seeing Don Letts the man, and not just his work, is fascinating stuff. There’s a lovely moment towards the end that, I hope is totally spontaneous, where he interrupts the interview to talk to his daughter and we just see Don Letts as Dad. Turning the proverbial tables on the Film Maker and Making a Film about him … I’m surprised it took this long!
In closing with an epilogue of sorts, the so-called modern day “culture wars”, recent protests and unrest show us that 2022 and 1977 are not that different. Well apart from the fact that everyone has a video camera now. Everyone is able to, and pretty much does, document everything be it protest, injustice, music or whatever else this insane world throws at us. Who will take up the mantle of putting it all together to make sense of it in years to come? That remains to be seen but for now I’ll let the charismatic man himself have the final word: “Have a good time, look good and try your very best not to be a cunt.”
By Marv Gadgie