Mojo Magazine September Isuue 2011: 3 star review

"Black with a new Selecter band & toaster Gaps Hendrickson have shifted up  a gear to provide an album that would sit comfortably next to The Selecter's 1980 debut "Too Much Pressure".....but it's when Black steps out of her comfort zone as with her reggae reading of Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black' that she moves forward, capturing the singer at her vocal best".

Scottish Daily Record: July 29th 2011- Back to Black: 4 star review

Pure coincidence that The selecter's Pauline Black covered Amy winehouse.  It's a classic ska cut. Frankly, brilliant.

ivirgin.com online: Camp Bestival gig review: July 31st

"we found the most heartwarming tribute to Amy Winehouse came from the unsuspecting quarters of Sunday afternoon ska heroes 'The Selecter'. They had released their version of 'Back To Black' on the day Amy died.  The release was pulled but Pauline Black and co played it nonetheless and it was perfect.  time will hopefully allow the rest of the world to hear their brilliant skanked up rendition- just as Amy would have no doubt loved"

Metro review: 24th July 2011

Pauline Black's 'Back To Black' is single of the week: The Selecter's legendary frontwoman covers Amy Winehouse. It's an effortless ska pop groove....

Reggae Britannia, Barbican London

The Independent  7th Feb 2011

Reviewed by: Nick Hasted

"Multiculturalism rules", The Selecter's Pauline Black says pointedly, hours after David Cameron has declared it dead. No one else gives the Prime Minister's comment house-room during this exhilarating, three-hour celebration of reggae in Britain. Look around at the delighted one-time skinheads and rude boys dancing to the heroes that unite them, and the idea seems the product of a fevered brain.

British reggae's lynchpin, Dennis Bovell, is the MC for this celebration of the living past, which faded out in the 1980's when roots reggae and lovers rock lost their grip to digital rhythms. the subtly superb house band show what's been lost with their delicate keyboards and heavy-punching horns, guitar echoes and crashing rim-shots- live rhythms that shift yet stay tight.  There's little dub dread, more a relief from pressure in this agile music.

True to history, Jamaican imports dominate at first.  The response for Ken Boothe is an instant ecstatic reverence I've rarely experienced, an urgent ovation he fully justifies.  He's a suited soul testifier, a vulnerable lover man. His 1974 hit "Everything I Own" feels like a secret exile's song as well as peerless ballad. "Memories don't live like people do", he mentions as he ends, when it feels like Elvis has left the building. Toaster Big Youth is as remarkable, a white-bearded Rastafari mixing prophetic chat with sexual jerks of his gold-suited hips, a wild card swinging his dreadlocks like Medusa's snakes.

Pauline Black is the first British artist. In a Midlands rude-girl suit of sharp straight lines, she brings 2-Tone's faster, jerky punk beat and the needling New Wave aggro of "On My Radio", to which a platoon of fans jog along. the Special's singer Neville Staple adds more Coventry sufferation with "Ghost Town", though its writer, 2-Tone founder Jerry Dammers, is a glaring omission. "Proper legend"! someone shouts as the band's infirm trombonist Rico finds the breath to contribute. The ex-singers of Aswad and UB40, Brinsley Forde and Ali Campbell, fare less well, the latter's adenoidal "Many River's To Cross" making one long for Jimmy Cliff's sacred version. But lovers rock queen Janet Kay creamily sings the first chart-topper by a black British artist, "Lovin' You", a staging post in the cultural liberation replayed tonight.

The Guardian

Monday 7 February 2011

Reviewer: Robin Denselow

Inspired tribute … Ali Campbell, Dennis Bovell, Big Youth, Brinsley Forde, Carroll Thompson, Pauline Black and Janet Kay at Reggae Britannia.

Reggae was born in Jamaica but became an international style, and Britain played an important role in its transformation. As singer Ken Boothe said: "England is the first place that embraced Jamaican music." In the process, Jamaican styles dramatically influenced the British music scene, and united many black and white musicians and fans at a time when the National Front was trying to achieve the opposite effect.

This rousing show reflected the variety and sophistication of the resulting music, with a reminder that many of the key performers from the 1970s and 80s remain in fine voice.

The format was that of a review, with an impressive 10-piece band, three singers and a string section providing the backing for 12 artists, who mostly performed three songs each. The mood, for the most part, was celebratory. There was little reflection of the militancy of the Rock Against Racism movement, and the anger of Linton Kwesi Johnson was sadly missed. But the punk-ska fusion of the 2-Tone bands was represented by a slick, attacking set from Pauline Black, who announced "multiculturalism rules", while Neville Staple from the Specials provided a stirring treatment of Ghost Town.

There were surprisingly few references to Rastafari, though the engaging DJ Big Youth tried to put that right with his poetic lyrics and wild dancing, frantically shaking his dreadlocks as he sang. Instead, the emphasis was on lovers rock, with fine performances from Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, and Boothe providing the most memorable, soulful vocals of the evening. The show ended with Ali Campbell of UB40 singing their 1983 hit Red Red Wine before joining the full cast for Bob Marley's One Love. It had been an inspired tribute to a great era.

London Evening Standard

Monday 7th Feb 2011

Reviewer: Jane Cornwell

THE FIRE NEVER GOES OUT FOR REGGAE BRITANNIA

So they came, one after the other: rude girls. Ska boys. Crooners. Rastafarians. A Who's Who of British reggae as programmed by avuncular producer and musician Dennis Bovell, who hosted this upbeat homage with the authority of one who had been there.

As indeed had the crowd; from the moment old muckers Dennis Alcapone and Winston Reedy arrived, trilbys cocked, for a mini set that included Guns Don't Argue, a sold-out auditorium sang, skanked and relived its rebel youth.

Pauline Black of 2-Tone heroes The Selecter bounced along to On My Radio. Besuited balladeer Ken Booth got a standing ovation then launched into his 1974 UK No.1, Everything I Own.

DJ/vocalist Big Youth flashed a mouthful of gold teeth, shook his dreads free from his tam and praised the backing band and Jah. Carroll Thompson reprised her lover's rock anthem I'm So Sorry; a portly Ali Campbell took us to Kingston Town. Sounding as fresh and relevant as they first did decades ago, these were the trailblazers who redefined Jamaican reggae for a British audience. Who embraced multiculturalism and made it work. With its all-in version of Bob Marley's One Love as encore, Reggae Britannia only reiterated that the fire has never gone out.

The Selecter: Independent by Pierre Perroni 12th October 2010 read article