Don Letts at Donkey

Date: Fri 8th May
Time: 20:00

... If you've seen either of these two artists before you know this is an event not to be missed.

About The Artists...
DON LETTS:
Letts was born in London, and educated at Tenison's School in Kennington. In 1975, Letts ran the London clothing store Acme Attractions selling, "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long." Letts was deeply inspired by the music coming from his parents' homeland Jamaica, in particular Bob Marley. After seeing one of Marley's gigs at the Odeon in Hammersmith (June 1976) he was able to sneak into the hotel and spent the night talking to and befriending Marley.[2] By the mid 1970s Acme had quite a scene attracting all the like of The Clash, Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry and Bob Marley.
Seeing the crowd at Acme, the then promoter Andy Czezowski started up the Roxy, a London nightclub during the original outbreak of punk in England, so that people could go from the store and have some place to party. As most bands of that era had yet to be recorded, there were limited punk rock records to be played. Instead, Letts included many dub and reggae records in his sets, and is credited[by whom?] with introducing those sounds to the London punk scene, which was to influence The Clash and other bands. As a tribute, he is pictured on the cover of the EP Black Market Clash and the compilation Super Black Market Clash. He was able to use the fame and money from DJing and the Acme story to make his first film, The Punk Rock Movie (1978).
Letts quit the retail business to manage the band, The Slits. He was able to get The Slits to open for The Clash during the White Riot tour. While on the White Riot tour he decided that management was not for him, but continued to shoot material for The Punk Rock Movie.
Letts went to Jamaica for the first time when, after Sex Pistols broke up, Johnny Rotten decided to escape the media frenzy by going with Richard Branson to Jamaica. It was on this trip that Branson was inspired to start up Virgin's Frontline reggae record label.

VIBRONICS:
Vibronics are a reggae collective, based in Leicester, England, starting in 1995. Centred on Steve Vibronics and Richi Rootz, they initially gained exposure via the Egg Experience '97 shows, leading to a deal with Zion Train's Universal Egg label.
Mainly working in digital dub, Vibronics' early releases such as "Universal Love" and "Jah Light, Jah Love" found favour with sound systems such as Jah Shaka's, Iration Steppas, and Aba Shanti-I. With Jah Free, Vibronics performed on a series of dub conferences in several European countries, leading to the release of the album Outernational Dub Conference Volume One in 1998.
They set up their own SCOOPS label, and in recent years have worked with vocalists such as Prince Alla, Tena Stelin, Ranking Joe, Madu Messenger, Parvez (Dub Factory), Jah Marnyah, and Echo Ranks, as well as a collaboration with Fun Lovin' Criminals.
Vibronics have toured all over Europe, including an "Acoustic Vibronics" set at Summer Sundae in 2007, and have received airplay on national radio shows such as Brinsley Forde's BBC 6 Music Dub Bashment programme.

Caribbean Food & Merchandise Stalls

Donkey

Wellford Road
Leicester
Leicestershire

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Don Letts

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