COVENTRY Music Museum Curator Pete Chambers BEM writes for the Observer.
Pauline Black OBE is no ordinary artist. Being the front person of the Ska band The Selecter is only part of her story.
A beautifully-constructed new documentary perfectly tells the often painful story of the Ska world’s most iconic female vocalists and is testament to Jane Mingay’s skills as a director.
Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story features contributions from Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson, Don Letts, Skin, Damon Albarn, Rhoda Dakar, Lynval Golding, Mykaell Riley, Sonia Boyce, Daniel Rachel and Jools Holland.
Each add their very own, up-close a personal take on Pauline, but it is the women herself that brings the story to life. She pulls no punches as she relates her adoptive upbringing as a mix-raced child to white parents.
Using phrases like ‘breed the black out of you’ and ‘black was bad’ demonstrated just how much as a child she was made to feel an outsider in her own Romford home. It is a recurring theme for Pauline who years later as a successful front-person in The Selecter continued to have to fight for her right as a mixed-race woman in the often racist and frequently misogynistic world of pop music.
It’s vital as a piece of 2-Tone history and compelling as a story of a black icon that, against all the odds, reached the pinnacle of success in the world of entertainment.
The Coventry premiere of her documentary – Pauline Black – A 2-Tone Story – will be held at the Warwick Arts Centre at 6pm on Saturday, October 26, with a question-and-answer session with Pauline and Jane. As I write, tickets are limited.
Last week, The Selecter played the HMV Empire, a superb gig but an emotive one without Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson, who passed away in June.
