Pauline Black of The Selector
Pauline Black returns to the world ska stage in 2009, after a 2 year hiatus, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 2-Tone movement. She kicks off the celebration in March 2009 with a South American tour of Argentina and Brazil, where she will perform alongside Doreen Schaeffer of The Skatalites as ‘The Queens of Reggae and Ska’. In April 2009 she joins her long time friends Neville Staple (The Specials) and Ranking Roger (The Beat) for the ‘Stars Of Ska’ tour of Dubai and Australia. She is currently writing her memoirs entitled ‘Pigment Of My Imagination’ for publication this year.
In 1979, she became the lead singer with 2-TONE band the The Selecter, who spearheaded the 2-tone label alongside The Specials and Madness. They enjoyed a string of hits in the early ‘80′S, gaining two gold discs, to mark 100,000 sales of the albums ‘TOO MUCH PRESSURE’ and ‘DANCE CRAZE’. The critically acclaimed album ‘CELEBRATE THE BULLET’ followed. In 1982 she left The Selecter (the band split up soon after), gained her Equity card and diversified into theatre, TV and film acting, TV and radio presentation and writing. She won the Time Out/01 Best Actress Award in 1990 for her portrayal of jazz singer ‘Billie Holiday’ in a play by novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips. She also won the ‘Manchester Evening News Best Actress Award’ 1993 for her performance in ‘From The Mississippi Delta’ by Dr. Endesha Mae Holland.
The Selecter re-formed with a different line-up in 1991 and toured extensively in U.S.A, Europe and Japan. The band retired from the touring circuit in December 2006.
Pauline also toured with acoustic ’supergroup’ Three Men+ Black from 2001-2006 with Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers), Jean Jacques Burnel (The Stranglers), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), Dave Wakeling(The Beat), Rhoda Dakar(The Bodysnatchers) and Nick Welsh (Skaville UK).
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