Pauline Black

Pauline Black

Pauline Black is a singer, actress and author from London, United Kingdom. She is best known as the lead singer of The Selecter, the ska and 2 Tone group founded in Coventry in 1979. With the band, she helps define its early sound and appears on its most notable records, including Too Much Pressure and Celebrate the Bullet.

The Selecter achieves commercial success in the early 1980s and receives gold discs for sales of Too Much Pressure and Dance Craze. Black leaves the band in 1982 and later returns to perform with various versions of the group. She also records and performs under her own name, including a solo project with The Blue Jazz Trio called The Very Best of Nina Simone & Billie Holiday, which is issued as an album and DVD.

Acting and writing

After leaving The Selecter, Black builds a career in television, theatre, film, radio presentation and writing. Her acting credits include The Vice, The Bill, Hearts and Minds and 2000 Acres of Sky. She appears in the horror film The Funny Man alongside Christopher Lee.

She wins the Time Out award for Best Actress in 1991 for her role as Billie Holiday in All or Nothing At All, and the Manchester Evening News Best Actress Award in 1993 for From The Mississippi Delta by Endesha Mae Holland.

The Selecter and later work

The Selecter re-forms in 1991 with a changed line-up and continues to tour internationally and record new material. Pauline Black continues to perform as The Selecter until 2006, and later appears under the name The Selecter featuring Pauline Black. In 2010 she and Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson perform under The Selecter name to mark the 30th anniversary of Too Much Pressure.