Where to, Parker. Issue 5 | Summer 2017

BusIness
Levi couldn’t read or
write when he came to
the UK as an 11-yearold
kid. Now he’s
worth £35 million.
Theresa was the catalyst Levi needed to
abandon his old life of crime and bad behaviour.
“One day she looked at me and said: ‘You’re not
Keith Graham. You’re Levi Roots. Don’t be Keith.
Keith is what got you into prison in the first place.’
She started teaching me the right books to read,
she gave me elocution lessons, because at the time
I was very patois. She taught me Shakespeare, and
When I got out of prison I
became a totally different
person. I wasn’t Keith Graham
any more. I was now Levi
Roots.”
acting, and how to be a better person. Thanks to her
tutelage, when I got out of prison I became a totally
different person. I wasn’t Keith any more. I was now
Levi Roots.”
In the 1970s Levi had been immersed in the
Brixton music scene, performing as part of a
Jamaican-style sound system. Later he recorded
reggae albums, even once performing on stage with
James Brown. All the while, in the kitchen of his
Brixton flat, he was mixing up his special Caribbean
sauce, following a recipe handed down to him by
his grandmother. Every summer the sauce proved
immensely popular with revellers at Notting Hill
Carnival. So popular that Levi thought he might
launch it commercially. But he needed investment.
“I went to all the banks in southwest London –
HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, all of them. And I took my
guitar along, just like on Dragons’ Den. But none
26 where to, parker?
Parker_Issue_5_Book.indb 26 29/06/2017 12:25