HUMAN ALGEBRA

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She was born Belinda Magnus to a Nigerian father Gordon Adenle (a Yoruba prince), and a British Jewish teenager from Dagenham, Eileen Magnus, who gave her up for adoption. The Selecter are no strangers to the Roundhouse, having used the venue’s basement tunnels back in 1981 to film the promotional video for ‘Celebrate The Bullet’ from their 2nd album of the same name. The whole album, while almost completely for devotees, has righteous spirit and is going to cause joy and dancing in venues and festival fields throughout the land in 2023.

The Selecter - Human Algebra - The Arts Desk Album: The Selecter - Human Algebra - The Arts Desk

In her capacity as lead singer of the Selecter, Black featured prominently in BBC Four's Reggae Britannia series in February 2011 and the televised 'Reggae Britannia Concert' at the Barbican, London, alongside Ken Boothe, Neville Staple and Brinsley Forde of Aswad. For String Theory (2013), the band extended from these themes, observing how people "celebrate their differences more than they celebrate the things that unite us," and named the album in relation to the string theory being a metaphor for connection between humans.They were the blackest band on the roster, plus the only one with both a male and female frontperson, Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson smooth skanking alongside Black’s peppy fire. After the release of their fourth LP, 2019’s brilliant Your Church On My Bonfire, PAWS slowly slipped out of sight. A quick CV: she started off as a hospital radiographer, before quitting in 1979 when the Selecter took off.

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It’s been 43 years since the release of The Selecter’s seminal debut album Too Much Pressure and while it still inspires and resonates today, their new studio album Human Algebra keeps the fire burning with a stellar collection of hard-hitting tracks in the band’s own inimitable style. EARLY ACCESS to the venue where you will be able to browse the merchandise, head to the bar or get your place down at the front.The band's debut album, Too Much Pressure (1980), exemplifies the band's 2 Tone sound, mixing ska, reggae and punk rock styles. Congratulations to Pauline Black from The Selecter who has been awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours. The band were among the few racially and sexually mixed 2 tone bands and Black's lyrics, in a similar vein to several other 2 tone bands, covered numerous social ills, including sexism and most prominently racism.