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The Selecter

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Coventry, United Kingdom (1979 – 1982, 1991 – present)

The Selecter were a British ska revival band from Coventry, formed in the late 1970s as one of the essential bands of the British ska movement.

Much of what set apart The Selecter from many of the other ska bands at the time was the voice of Pauline Black. She had to disguise herself as a man in order for the band to get gigs, but once they did, there was no disguising her voice. Like other ska bands of this movement, The Selecter featured a racially mixed line up, and songs about violence, politics, marijuana, a fictional spy’s theme song, James Bond, and reggae classics. The name of the band is a reference to the Jamaican word for a music selecter, known elsewhere as the DJ. Also typical to the style is the mix of one vocalist singing, and the other toasting in a Jamaican style, a precursor to rapping.

The Selecter’s first recording Too Much Pressure was recorded at the end of 1979 and beginning of 1980 and issued on the pre-eminent 2 Tone/Chrysalis label. Their second recording Celebrate the Bullet was issued in 1981. Though the band has continued to regroup and reform on and off, most of the many recordings available are recompiled selections from these first two albums, either live or studio recordings. The Selecter’s first two albums are essential British ska recordings.

Tagged as:

ska, two-tone, british, 2 tone, reggae
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Too Much Pressure
The Selecter
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Celebrate The Bullet
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Greatest Hits
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Selected Selecter Selections
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Top Tracks

1	On My Radio full track	386
2	Three Minute Hero full track	228
3	Too Much Pressure full track	213
4	Missing Words	184
5	James Bond full track	170
6	Celebrate The Bullet full track	112
7	Murder full track	93
8	The Selecter full track	76
9	The Whisper full track	60
10	They Make Me Mad	58
11	Out On The Streets full track	49
12	My Collie (Not A Dog) full track	45
13	Carry Go Bring Come	43
14	Street Feeling full track	35
15	Danger	30

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YControl755 wrote:
May 2009

Feel good but with a dark edge. Their uniqueness and songwriting made them the greatest two-tone band, in my opinion.

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Shinyyy wrote:
May 2009

feel good music sounds absolutely right. :)

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fallintoblue wrote:
May 2009

this is my feel good music.

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Dalboz wrote:
April 2009

SkA SKA sKA

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MIR17 wrote:
March 2009

http://www.last.fm/group/Midlanders+UK/connections Join my group if you are from the Midlands!

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RangerJackson wrote:
February 2009

Happiness is to see youth [Me included] with the need for good fun beat. Selector - gimme my selector Ruff rude it

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pong_ping wrote:
January 2009

Pauline Black - electric!

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PrisRoux wrote:
January 2009

I uploaded 3 NEW BEAUTIFUL PICTURES of the band here on their profile. Please, check them out, I bet you'll leave 'em some THUMBS UP ; ) Cheers!

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Soul-jah wrote:
January 2009

i love you so much

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Murphy-33 wrote:
January 2009

♥ !

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newjack- wrote:
August 2008

love it

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johnnytwotone wrote:
July 2008

If you don't wanna dance to this, check your pulse.

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ilikefood777 wrote:
July 2008

Doom ska? ("Everyday (Time Hard)")

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YogurtJalla wrote:
July 2008

Nah, not even Selecter is PURE ska, as most 2-tone bands they've got influenses from punk, pop, other western music and of course reggae. Great band though.

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miltenswaffel wrote:
July 2008

This is good ska, I love it. Sublime is defenitly good as well, had been addicted to it quite some years. But there is not really one label that aplies to Sublime. Its just eclectic. The Selecter is pure ska (2-tone) though, but very lovely.

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DutchSchwartz wrote:
June 2008

4 t/luv of heaven, please bring back the original Too Much Pressure LP cuts instead of these gawsh-awful alternates!

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draculahair wrote:
June 2008

whats rude is this music.

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YControl755 wrote:
June 2008

It always amazes me that people feel the need to spout their negative opinions, even for something as subjective as music. If you don't like the Selecter, that is fine, but there is no need to state that they "suck" on their lastfm page...that's just rude.

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Bartles wrote:
June 2008

Sublime might be ska to a certain degree, but it is worlds different from The Selecter, and the 2-Tone sound in general.

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Conatz wrote:
May 2008

lol @ sublime. anyway, i dig this shit...

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Recent Activity

ZiFF33, manuarias74, tuathal and 15 other people added The Selecter to their libraries. 17 minutes ago
rubycork tagged The Selecter with ‘ska’. Saturday morning
rubycork and Tremblinoc added The Selecter to their libraries. Saturday morning
piadepredio tagged The Selecter with ‘2 tone’. Friday evening
Proff1968, guzskasixers, skin1000 and 16 other people added The Selecter to their libraries. 7 days ago
SOAD37 tagged The Selecter with ‘ethan monkarsh’. 12 days ago
Juheysham, ffb360, chabuwski and 12 other people added The Selecter to their libraries. 12 days ago
dafosaddikk tagged The Selecter with ‘2tone ska’. 16 days ago
james_s10, dancass, woohsten and 5 other people added The Selecter to their libraries. 17 days ago
GrindCrusherrr uploaded PB to The Selecter’s images. 18 days ago