AFTER 35 years as one of the most erudite figures in the music business, Pauline Black could be forgiven for letting her achievements with ska pioneers The Selecter see her through, writes John Anson.

But rather than sitting back, the 2-Tone pioneers are back on the road - and playing Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre, on Friday, March 4 (7.30pm) - with a sound and a message which is as relevant today as the first singles such as On My Radio were all those years ago.

“We’re never going to do heritage tours for the rest of our days,” explained Pauline. “Over the last five years we have put in a lot of hard work and we have never stood still.

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“Of course we will do some of the heritage shows, we have a great history and we are proud of that, but we are equally proud of the music that we are making now.”

Last year The Selecter – which as well as Pauline also includes fellow original member Arthur ‘Gaps’ Henderson - released the album Subculture to great critical acclaim.

“The anti-racist, anti-sexist, politically aware stance of 2-Tone when it first started is still as relevant today,” said Pauline. “Things have changed from the early Eighties but there are still problems and our music is relevant for today.”

The working relationship between Pauline and Gaps is at the heart of The Selecter.

“I can honestly say that we have never had a cross word in the 36 years that we have known each other,” said Pauline, “which is pretty remarkable.

“We just have this honest relationship with each other. We are both physical people, we both run and like to keep fit and on stage the whole male/female dynamic works for the band.

“I will take more of the melody while Gaps is the toaster but the two of us just complement each other. We don’t have egos, at our age you can’t be ego driven.

“But we’re both committed to continue doing what we want to do.”

The pair’s writing partnership also remains as strong as it was when The Selecter first started out as, along with bands such as The Specials and The Beat, they helped turn ska music from a minority interest into the mainstream.

“Normally I’ll have some kind of melody going round in my head,” said Pauline, “and a song will develop from there.”

Pauline and Gaps helped TV viewers see in the New Year when they performed with Jools Holland and his big band on the Hootenanny programme.

“That was great fun,” said Pauline. “We did some shows with Jools last year and we’re going to be touring with him again this year.”

The Selecter will be heading off to Australia after the current UK dates and also have a series of festival performances pencilled in during the summer, including the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury.

“We are also looking at celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Celebrate the Bullet album by playing a series of theatre dates,” said Pauline.

“We thought that the fans might appreciate the chance to see us and sit down at the same time. It will also be something different for us so there might be a few select dates being arranged at some point.”

Brewery box office 01539-725133.