Pauline Black, one of 2 Tone’s founders, hasn’t forgotten playing Scotland for the first time – because of an embarrassing encounter with a fish supper.
The Selecter’s Romford-born singer has since found out she has a Scottish family and was a Bay City Rollers fan in the 70s.
Pauline, 69, whose birth father was Nigerian, was born Belinda Magnus and was adopted by a white family.
She went to study in Coventry and trained as a radiographer working in the NHS before joining The Selecter in 1979 who, with The Specials and Madness, started the ska revival movement.
The three bands went on tour in 1979, with Stirling University their first Scots date. Pauline said: “I don’t remember that gig. I do remember playing the following night, November 11, at Tiffany’s in Glasgow.
“The Glasgow gig was magical, everything about Glasgow felt different, the way people talked, the stone the buildings were made of, the love of fans.
“Amazing place and it still is. It’s always one of my favourite places to play.
“I remember asking for fish and chips at a takeaway the first time I went and the guy said, “Yer wan a fish supper?” And I stupidly said, ‘No, I want chips as well.’
“That conversation went on for a while until a kind local tapped me on the shoulder and explained what a fish supper meant. Everybody in the queue laughed.”
Pauline has since found out she has a Scottish connection. She explained: “I was adopted when I was 18 months old but I traced my birth mother at 42 and discovered an aunt who had married a Hamilton, with a broad Glaswegian accent, in Australia.
“I’ve since met the extended Hamilton family of my newfound uncle, who live not too far from Glasgow.” It’s perhaps not surprising she has a love of Scotland given she was a Rollers fan and later would work with Eric Faulkner in indie supergroup 3 Men & Black.
She said: “Everybody was a Bay City Rollers fan back in the day. Touring with Eric on a couple of the incarnations of 3 Men & Black in the early noughties was lovely. I have fond memories of performing with him.
“I remember singing along on tour, with thousands of festival-goers to Bye Bye Baby, Give a Little Love, Rock ’n’ Roll Love Letter and obviously Shang a Lang.”
It has been 43 years since The Selecter’s debut album Too Much Pressure released in 1980, which included Three Minute Hero and Missing Words. On My Radio was released the year before. Next Friday Pauline and fellow original member Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson and drummer Charley “Aitch” Bembridge will release Human Algebra, their 16th studio album.
They will also tour the UK including a date at the QMU in Glasgow on April 28. It’s a follow-up to 2017’s Daylight and continues a tradition of social commentary with songs on knife crime, fake news and keyboard warriors, plus a tribute to the Beat’s Ranking Roger, who died in 2019.
Since then, one of 2 Tone’s leading lights, Terry Hall of The Specials, passed away in December. Pauline said: “I admired Terry – an amazing performer, singer and very original artist across many chart-topping bands. I will miss his singular lyrical wit and sardonic expression on stage.
“He was never a friend but you don’t have to be friends with somebody to know that they are special.”
Pauline will celebrate her 70th birthday in October. Given she’ll soon be jumping about on tour, she’s not showing her age. She said: “I still wonder how I got to this age quite so quickly. I’m not bothered by it. I rarely celebrate birthdays but I might make an exception for this one.
“So many of my contemporaries have popped their clogs over the past few years. I am of a mind to stop worrying about age and just keep doing what makes me happy. The Selecter makes me happy.”
As a woman fronting a band as well as being mixed race in a mixed race band, Pauline was a trailblazer in the 70s.
She said: “I’m proud of the legacy of the 2 Tone movement I was a part of. That’s why all the bands associated with it are still remembered. We stood against something – racism and sexism – and didn’t fall for the famous for five minutes nonsense the pop industry peddles.”
Of course, 1980 hit Three Minute Hero prophesied the desire of would-be stars to be on Love Island or Britain’s Got Talent. The song represented the “impossible dream” for working class kids at the time to become pop stars with a 7in single.
Pauline said: “Three Minute Hero was about dreaming of finding success, which meant forming a band, recording a single and getting it played on the radio. Andy Warhol predicted everybody would be famous for 15 minutes in the future. We obviously thought that three minutes was a more realistic goal!
“These days fame is measured in a different way. You can be an influencer with millions of followers on social media by endorsing stuff from your own bedroom with photo filters on your phone, no real skills required.
“Then again, you can be forgotten just as quickly.”
● The Selecter’s new album Human Algebra is out on April 21. They play Glasgow QMU on April 28.
