“I've always felt that if your going to write a book about yourself the worst thing you can do is lie,” says The Selecter front woman Pauline Black, “or just pick out the really great bits; that would have made for a very short book.”

She's just released her autobiography, Black By Design, a brave and inspiring tome that details her humble beginnings as child of mixed racial heritage adopted by a white working-class family in Coventry, to 2Tone's most famous rude gyal and the voice of hits such as 'On My Radio' and 'Missing Words'. Her role in music, and later stage and TV, are explored in depth, but her story is framed by her search for racial identity and roots in ‘70s Thatcherite Britain. “I wanted to write it because I don't feel the story of the brown skinned, mixed race babies that were fostered at that time has really been addressed in great detail. There's a lot of us out there, and I've had a number of people write to me since the books came out. They're pleased that someone's talking about it.”

She's candid about some of the people she worked with and encountered in the music industry, though there's a certain air of dignified restraint at work in places. “I didn't want to write a salacious book,” she says, “I did, however, want to give people a flavor of what it was like being a female on tour with men in the late ‘70s. It was a difficult tightrope to walk - the lawyers got rid of most of it,” she laughs.

As a fledgling musician, Black found music offering her the direction and dialogue that her immediate community was unable to provide, with artists like Third World, Bunny Wailer, Culture, The Last Poets and Linton Kwesi Johnson leaving a particular impression. Her exposure to Motown and soul was important, along with reggae, the Carribean-born genre that originated from ska, music that Black and outfits like The Specials would later revive at the tail end of the ‘70s. “Reggae came out of ska, in Jamaica,” she explains. “The only access they had to radio was the stations coming in from Florida and Miami. With the tinny radios they had at the time, they only picked up half the beat of the soul music they were tuning in to, which resulted in the ska. That slowed down and became reggae. Then the conscious lyrics came in. If you had a mind that was looking for that kind of stuff, it was there, and I did.”

Black remains one of the reigning female voices of the 2Tone movement, which mixed a nostalgia for first wave 60's Jamaican ska with, contemporary punk and pop sounds. Though she mentions women like Rhoda Dakar in Black By Design, Black is often the staple, lone female voice on the various ska compilations that are now produced, a revisionist history of ska, first and second wave, that she's happy to refute. “There were plenty of women around at the start - Nora Dean of Barb Wire for one. Millie Small's 'My Boy Lollipop' was one of the biggest crossover records, but women were often one-record acts. Male artists were bigger selling. It's a question of opportunity, and how women were seen in Jamaica at the time.” Black was a determined to carve her own path in the rising swell of the UK's revivalist scene. “I knew when I started that I did not see myself in the role of the I Threes (Bob Marley and The Wailers backing group); I did not want to be a backing singer” she says with conviction. “If I was inspired by anyone at all, it would probably be Poly Styrene.” Sadly, the iconic X-Ray Spex front woman died earlier this year, following the release of her last solo LP Generation Indigo. “I couldn't believe it,” Black reflects. “I participated in a programme back in 2010 and a lot of it was hooked around her. That was the last time I spoke to her.”

The anti-sexist, anti-racist ideals 2Tone celebrated were far from easy causes. “We came together to fight those issues, but we were still part of society, living inside it,” Black remarks. “It was still a struggle. We were working so closely together, artistically, and that meant thrashing things out between each other.” The Selecter, with its mixed racial heritage and sound, had its own particular tensions. ”There was always this tendency in the band to pull into a rock direction, which is essentially a white territory, for want of a better word, and then there was the faction in the band who wanted to move in a reggae direction.” Though this tension could be creatively productive, it was “also a source of conflict - who should produce us, what the music should sound like; and that was a struggle. It manifested itself physically sometimes.” Though these issues would eventually push the band apart, they were unanimous in their fight against the fascist factions that sprung up to opposed 2Tone's egalitarian message. “The one thing that untied us all was when we were turning up on stage and there were all these people sieg heiling you.”

Black politely declines to discuss her recent legal victory over the rights to The Selecter's trademark (“Its a band matter. I don't want to crow about it”) and though her autobiography confronts some of the 2Tone community's failings, she can acknowledge the positive aspects of the scene. “The comradery at the beginning of the movement was excellent, and it was a joy to be able to be on stage and not feel that distance between the band and the audience. I'm just happy that people remember it 31 years later, and consider it a valid thing.” The late Amy Winehouse helped to bring 2Tone back in to the public eye, covering a number of The Specials hits and showing a passion for 2Tone fashion, so much so that Black recorded a tribute cover of 'Back To Black'. “I happened to believe she was the most talented person on the planet. An excellent song writing, performer; she was unique in every way. Her interest in the 2Tone movement was fabulous. And that's why I wanted to do 'Back To Black'. Id been doing it in the set with The Selector and The Pauline Black band, and it was planned to be a download single, but it just didn't feel right. “

Though the single was shelved, the song will still feature on the upcoming Selecter album Made In Britain. Set for release on Sept 4th, it sees Black reunited with fellow Selector co-vocalist Gaps Hendrickson. Their return is timely. “2Tone got together was to address social pressures and inequality and I see no reason to stop doing that now we're older.” The parallels between Thatcher's Britain and violent unrest that David Cameron's government have inspired are not lost on Black, as talk turns to the recent youth riots. “It would be so much better if we sat down and had a dialogue with these young people, rather than putting them in already over-crowed jails to make an example of them, which will just make things worse.” She's also quietly scathing about historian David Starkey's recent racist outburst, in which he blamed patois and black culture on the riots. “The thing that disturbed me was that he felt he could say those things publicly on such a programme. We don't need voices like that in the public arena; they are counterproductive and of no use to anyone,” she says firmly.

She's been active through some of Britain's most eventful decades, and writing her autobiography has helped to put things into perspective for Black. “One never gets to the age I am now and is proud of everything, but I don't regret anything either. I feel very privileged in a lot of ways. I shall be 58 in October and to still be out there, performing my music - the way I want to do it - is fantastic.”


The Selecter Live dates:

Sept 9th The Venue Derby, UK
Sept 11th Acquaviva Live Rock Festival Sienna, Tuscany, Italy
Sept 17th Brass Monkey Hastings, UK
Sept 18th Waltham Forest Waltham Forest London
Sept 23rd Tattoo Festival Tobacco Dock, London, UK
Sept 25th Making Waves Festival Looe, UK
Oct 1st Bocking Arts Centre Braintree, UK
Oct 21st Night & Day Manchester
Oct 22nd WAMA High Wycombe
Oct 23rd Komedia Bath, UK
Oct 27th Pavilion Cork, Eire
Oct 28th Spring & Airbrake Belfast N.I.
Oct 29th The Village Dublin, Eire
Nov 3rd Railway Winchester, UK
Nov 4th Corn Exchange Bedford, UK
Nov 17th Fairfield Hall Croydon, UK
Nov 18th Town Hall Birmingham, UK
Nov 25th The Nines Barrow In Furness, UK
Nov 26th Brickyard Carlisle, UK
Dec 3rd Electric Palace Bridport, UK
Dec 6th Cafe de Paris (Private Party) London, UK
Dec 9th Sage Gateshead, UK
Dec 16th Moneyfields Portsmouth, UK
Dec 17th SandBay Leisure Resort Weston-Super-Mare
Dec 23rd Corn Exchange Hertford, UK