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´ ACME was much more than a shop; it was a club, a lifestyle, an attitude, a forum for talent,´ says Don Letts about the premises where he first enountered Clash guitarrist Mick Jones, with whom he would for Big Audio Dynamite in the ´80s. ´ I basically made it like my living room, with a sofa and lots of ´50s knick-knacks and my sounds blasting out. We had such a laugh there. The guys would all be in to see Jeanette, and we knew everyone at all the other shops, so we´d be doing little deals for records and clothes. I think I can honestly say that Acme, in the basement, was the happiest time of my life. Selling clothes, although a major part of it, became smaller than the main business, which was the social interaction between the different cultures. We´d have the soul boys coming into town in their big cars and then mixing with the south London wide boys or girls who wanted to buy plastic raincoats and stillettos, and they´d all be in there listening to ´Dreadlock Dread´ by Big youth and ´MPLA´ by Tapper Zukie. ´
One day, Strongman was in black music record shop Contempo in the West End and noticed the Acme promotional poster. He made straight forthe address on it. ´ It was a completly life-changing experience, walking down those stairs. I´d never really heard heavy dub reggae before, and on the walls were great ´50s prints of gay guys in Harlem weaing suits and make-up and all these peg trousers pinned up to the walls. Don has his dreads and was wearing tigerskin shoes and peg trousers. Jeanette was weaing this micro mini-skirt, really ´60s. Every fashion that had happened up until that point was there - Beatle suits, everything. You got to meet people from all over the country - they´d come from Glasgow even. The customers were basically everyone who was bored with what was goin on.´
PAUL GORMAN - THE LOOK
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