Advertisement
News

Windrush child Don Letts: “Our parents were getting screwed”

The musical icon on why it took ‘Top of The Pops’ for his parents to understand his Rasta rebellion

Punky reggae pioneer Don Letts has told The Big Issue about his upbringing as a child of the Windrush generation.

In a Letter To My Younger Self the 62-year-old spoke about how his parents came to Britain with “their hopes and their dreams and their culture”and “basically got through by denying their roots, completely assimilating.” 

He goes on to recall his musical epiphany in 1971 seeing The Who, and why his musical ambitions caused tension at home:

“My ambitions, my rebellion in my exams, they drove an ever-growing wedge between me and my parents. It was a rocky road. When I first got my dreads they kicked me out of the house. From their perspective Rasta was something to be shunned. In the Fifties and Sixties Rastas were social pariahs in Jamaica. It wasn’t until the arrival of Bob Marley that they began to see it differently. And once they saw me on Top of the Pops, on TV, all of a sudden I made some sense to them. I was being accepted by white people and the mainstream and that had value to them.”

Letts also talks about musicians he misses, such as Amy Winehouse, Joe Strummer, and Ariane from The Slits. “Thankfully John Lydon’s still around. I owe him big time. Not only for the whole Sex Pistols thing, he was the first person to take me to Jamaica,” he said.

Read the full Letter To My Younger Self in this week’s Big Issue.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

Image: Dean Chalkey

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

It's our call to Keir Starmer to pass a law to end poverty.
big issue vendor holding up a 'we need a poverty zero law' sign

Recommended for you

Read All
Average rent now £400 per month higher than five years ago, Rightmove says: 'Another new record'
A UK housing estate and surrounding fields
Renting

Average rent now £400 per month higher than five years ago, Rightmove says: 'Another new record'

Universal credit cuts will push 50,000 into poverty despite government's U-turn, MPs warn
Liz Kendall
Disability benefits

Universal credit cuts will push 50,000 into poverty despite government's U-turn, MPs warn

Tributes paid to much-loved Big Issue vendor after tragic death: 'He would always help everybody'
a photo of the tributes left on Big Issue vendor Neil Smith's pitch and his pet dog Honey
Our Vendors

Tributes paid to much-loved Big Issue vendor after tragic death: 'He would always help everybody'

Donald Trump wants to 'criminalise' homeless people because it's not 'nice' seeing tents on streets
US president Donald Trump
Homelessness

Donald Trump wants to 'criminalise' homeless people because it's not 'nice' seeing tents on streets

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue