Clint Eastwood

Continuing in the tradition of Jamaica's great toasters, Clint Eastwood (real name Robert Brammer) became one of the big personalities of the late 1970s dancehall scene, firstly as DJ and then later as a reggae artist in his own right. Following in the footsteps of his older brother Trinity (a renowned producer and DJ), Eastwood would rap, sing and toast over dub instrumentals at some of Kingston's biggest sound system parties. His fame spread to the UK's growing reggae scene in the 1980s when he teamed up with Dillinger for the album Live In London (1981) before he began a long and successful partnership with British artist General Saint. Together they gained a reputation for wildly theatrical live shows and a fun-loving, slack, dubbed-out style, and signed to the Greensleeves label for the cult albums Two Bad DJ (1981) and Stop That Train (1983). Damon Albarn's animated musical project Gorillaz named their first single after Clint Eastwood in 2001, and in 2010 Eastwood & General Saint reunited to play at Luton's Love Music Hate Racism.