Formed in the late 1970s in Coventry, England - The Selecter was one of the early acts to sign to 2 Tone Records, home to Madness, The Beat and The Specials. They became an integral part of the emerging ska scene, setting themselves apart from the pack by being one of the only female fronted ska bands. Led by the fashionable and talented Pauline Black, The Selecter released a number of seminal singles on 2 Tone including “On My Radio,” “Three Minute Hero,” and “Missing Words.” A couple of these songs made it on their 1980 debut LP, Too Much Pressure, which charted in the Top 5 in the UK.
On Halloween in 2010, Pauline Black and Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson celebrated the 30th anniversary of Too Much Pressure with The Selecter performing the album live at the Sinners Day Festival in Belgium. This event kicked off the current revitalized incarnation of the legendary band who has continued to write and release new music. Their latest record, String Theory, came out earlier this year.
Pauline Black was born to an Anglo-Jewish teenage mother and Nigerian father and was adopted and raised by a white middle-aged couple. She wrote about her life and experience discovering her roots in Black By Design: A 2-Tone Memoir .