There and Black Again: The Autobiography of Don Letts by Mal Peachey & Don Letts

Author:Mal Peachey & Don Letts [Peachey, Mal & Letts, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913172091
Google: tMp0zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2021-03-11T23:22:51.294970+00:00

With my posse, Forest Hill, 1978. (L–r) JR, Leo (in front), T, Ariane, me.

RUDOLPH

I thought my brethren – Leo Williams on bass, JR on guitar and T on drums – could be a great band. I came up with the name and we found Winston Fergus who’d left The Equators and signed to Lightning Records as a solo artist the year before but had no success with his only single so far, ‘African Woman’. I was the ‘manager’ because I had management experience – at Acme and BOY – but mostly because I couldn’t play anything and couldn’t sing, either – which I proved to myself on ‘Haile Unlikely’. Once I’d got the money from Island, I gave it to the dreads, who bought instruments.

I also arranged their first gig, of course, and Christmas Day 1978 was quite a night for Basement 5 to make their debut, being as it was also the first live appearance of John Lydon and Public Image Ltd. Naturally there was a lot of press attention – which could only be good for us, I thought. I DJed both nights and played pretty much what I had at the Roxy, which at least set the mood for the 5’s performance (and that of Linton Kwesi Johnson, who read some of his work over a backing tape). Basement 5 weren’t even bottom of the bill, either; they went on after a French all-female band called The Lou’s, who’d clearly been inspired by The Slits and Raincoats and sounded not too dissimilar to both bands. Even though no-one was there specifically to see any of the support bands, they all got a decent response from the audience, which was surprisingly big given that there was no public transport on Christmas Day and only a Sunday service running the following night.

The gigs with PiL were a good test, which unfortunately Winston wasn’t ready for. He sang at both Rainbow gigs and it was clear that his old-style lovers approach to the music wasn’t what we were looking for. The following week it was agreed by all that he should leave. Lacking anyone else, someone suggested that I step in as toaster – I didn’t want to, but at least I wouldn’t have to ‘sing’. Plus, it was a chance to show the dreads in London that I wasn’t taking the piss after the debacle of ‘Haile Unlikely’, and that Basement 5 were a true roots reggae band (albeit with a different, slightly punky approach). Plus, we’d been offered gigs in Portugal early in 1979 and the brethren really wanted to go – it would mean them staying for a few months, and the chance of living, rehearsing and playing in a warm climate during what are always the coldest, most miserable months in London was too good to turn down.

Basement 5 went from Finsbury Park to Porto within a few weeks and I stayed in London, flying out to sing at a couple of gigs with them. Everything

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.