Sheila Rock/Rex Features
The Making of ‘(White Man in) Hammersmith Palais’
A few weeks after the Rock Against Racism Carnival in early 1978 had featured punk bands alongside roots reggae acts, The Clash released ‘(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais’, the first successful marriage of punk and reggae. In a Sony Magazine exclusive, Don Letts tells the story behind ‘(White Man)…’
In 1976, Don Letts was a
Rastafarian aspiring film-maker and DJ who befriended punks such as
Clash singer Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon. He was invited to
DJ at one of the early punk clubs, The Roxy, where his sets of glam and
garage rock interspersed with reggae and dub, widened the punks’
musical horizons.
Roots rock rebels – 1975-76
“I
think I first saw Paul and Joe at some blues dance in Notting Hill
Gate. I was standing across the room and looking at these weird-looking
white guys in the corner, kind of admiring the fact they had the balls
to be there.
“The Rastas weren’t really sure what punk was all
about but it wasn’t hard for them to identify with social outcasts and
rebels. All they knew was that these punk rockers had upset the status
quo, and that was good enough for them. If they could walk through a
door and stand in the middle of the Four Aces, which was a seriously
heavy reggae club in Dalston, or Hammersmith Palais, then double
respect!”
Dread meets punk – Jan-Apr 1977
“The
likes of Joe, Paul and certainly John Lydon and a few others out there
were already reggae fans long before they met me. They were
London-based, and if you were living in London, especially in certain
areas, you couldn’t help but be influenced by Jamaican music.
“We
became friends because of our mutual love of the music and I’d be
trying to one-up them with my white labels [DJ-only records] from
Jamaica. Joe would be playing me tracks and saying, “You heard this?”
“Yeah, course I have…” I was turned on by their whole punk, DIY ethic
and they were turned on by my reggae rebel stance; and they didn’t mind
the weed I was smoking, it has to be said.
“When they covered
Junior Murvin’s ‘Police & Thieves’ on the first album, which I
suppose you could say was the first time they’d tried to play a reggae
song on record, they didn’t do it lightly. They were expressing
something that came fairly naturally. They’d seen our attitude, seen
the way we walked, loved the music and connected with all those things
in quite a natural way.”
Hammersmith Palais – June 1977
“I
was with Joe that night at the Hammersmith Palais [at the gig that
inspired 'White Man…']. I don’t know if he was the only white man there
– I mean, there might have been white people behind the bar! Joe had
gone out expecting to see some roots rock reggae show. He probably
imagined they would be singing against a backdrop of corrugated iron
and barbed wire or something, but sometimes you want to forget about
all that.
“So what Joe got was more Las Vegas than roots rock
reggae. It was like a reggae revue. I think Joe quickly grasped his
misunderstanding of the situation, which links into the lyric ‘turning
rebellion into money’. So I think he uses that as a starting point to
address a lot of other things. Joe was forever jotting things down on
bits of paper, and he was doing the same that night. But he didn’t
really talk about it at the time – you’d find out what Joe was thinking
through his lyrics.”
Rock Against Racism – April 1978
“Rock
Against Racism was a really DIY movement, very punk rock in the sense
that it all started with someone sending a letter into the NME. Eric
Clapton made some comments about how [Conservative MP] Enoch Powell had
the right idea [opposing mass immigration from the Commonwealth]. Rock photographer Red Saunders wrote a letter to the NME and
several other magazines, it got hundreds of replies, and those were the
seeds of Rock Against Racism.
“One thing Rock Against Racism
did was regularly get reggae and rock bands on the same bill. They
organised a lot of gigs – not just the one in Victoria Park – with
bands like Reggae Regulars, Aswad, Misty In Roots; there was a lot of
interaction and swapping headline acts. Two totally alien cultures on
the face of it, but bring them together and something beautiful happens.
“And
since then, you can see how the elements of black music are part of the
fabric of British pop music. Just look at Lily Allen – very ska- and
reggae-influenced – yet you hardly notice because it just comes
naturally to kids now. The cultures have all intermixed, and The Clash
and things like Rock Against Racism played a significant part in that
process.”
As told to Johnny Sharp
This is an edited version of Don Letts’ account. To read the full story, subscribe to Sony Magazine here
Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers by Don Letts and David Nobakht is published by SAFP