Song:Missing Words
Album:Too Much Pressure
Like The Specials, The Selecter came out of the British Ska revival of the late 70s. They didn't make the same kind of impact because their second album wasn't very good and they split up. But Too Much Pressure is a must for fans of 2 Tone Records. The leader of The Selecter was guitarist and main songwriter Neol Davies. He was part of the Coventry ska revival with members of The Specials. The Selecter recorded an insteumental for 2 Tone and then Davies decided to turn them into a real band and brought in Pauline Black as lead singer. Other members were Arthur Hendrickson on vocals, Compton Amanor on guitar, Charley Anderson on bass, Charley Bembridge on drums and Desmond Brown on organ. Missing Words was their third single. It did very well on the British charts and they recorded Too Much Pressure in 1979. It reached #5 on the British album charts and is now considered a classic of the era. Things started to go south when Anderson & Brown left to form their own band. Their 1981 album Celebrate The Bullet just wasn't as good and didn't sell either. They split up in 1982. Too Much Pressure is available on CD from Captain Oi! with bonus tracks. Pauline Black went on to a significant acting career mostly on British TV and stage. She won the 1991 Time Out award for Best Actress for playing Bilie Holiday in the play All Or Nothing At All. Davies has recorded some blues CDs but he and Black reformed The Selecter in 1991 and they have toured and recorded occasionally. Here's the video for Missing Words by The Selecter.
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