Don Letts - This much I know

 

Don Letts: 'Music has become a soundtrack for consumerism. It feels like punk never happened'. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe/Advert

The evolution of the Notting Hill Carnival traces the evolution of multiculturalism – it's a cultural barometer. But it's also in danger of losing its conscience. I want to remind people that it was something born of struggle.

For my parents Carnival was a reminder of home, and somewhere they perhaps wanted to return to.

The black British youth was confused when I was growing up. We'd try to emulate American blacks or our Jamaican brothers, but we were somewhere in between.

Everything I learned about my culture came through reggae. The first time I heard about [political activist] Marcus Garvey was through music, not school.

I met Malcolm McLaren in 1972. He dressed as a teddy boy then. He connected the counter-cultural dots for me – made me aware that I could be part of it, too.

There were two shops on the King's Road in the 70s that attracted disaffected youth: my shop, Acme Attractions, and Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm's shop, Sex. Friendships were made by people who were attracted by their differences.

When punk came along, everyone picked up guitars. I wanted to pick something up too, so I picked up a camera and reinvented myself as a film-maker.

The downside of affordable technology is mediocrity. Back in the 70s every three minutes of film cost £20. Now you can get a 90-minute digital tape for a fiver. The price used to weed out people who were just fucking about.

Youth culture in the west is increasingly conservative. Music has become a soundtrack for consumerism. It feels like punk never happened.

Racial problems are more complicated now. I've got mates who moan about Polish people stealing their work. I'm like, "You can't say that. That's what people said about our parents."

I gave a lecture last week and the kids in the audience said, "Don, you sound like an angry old man." I said, "It's because you kids aren't bloody angry enough."

I was never a herd person: I was always a freak. I just refused to be defined by my colour.

Gareth Grundy @'The Guardian'