Born in Essex, Pauline Black, 71, worked as a radiographer before becoming lead singer of the Selecter in 1979. The band’s hit singles include On My Radio, Three Minute Hero and Missing Words. Black was made an OBE in 2022 for services to entertainment. A documentary about her life, Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story is on Sky Arts and Now TV from 16 April, and the Selecter are due to appear at Glastonbury. She is married and lives in the West Midlands.
What is your earliest memory?
Puking all over my mother’s freshly ironed sheets when she told me that I was adopted. She was not amused and she smacked me. I was four and a half; it was before I started going to school. I needed to be told because all my family was white.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m argumentative.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Being late.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
It was a small gig and I was doing Three Minute Hero, which has a long, held note at the end, and I fell off the stage.
Describe yourself in three words
Fizzy like lemonade.
What would your superpower be?
Matter transfer like in Star Trek so I never had to use a tour bus again.
What makes you unhappy?
Fascists.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
Janelle Monáe.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Bluntness.
What scares you about getting older?
Not being able to perform adequately.
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Nineteen Eighty-Four. I always meant to read it before 1984, and once 1984 had passed I didn’t see the point.
What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
I was called the N-word in Romford, by someone stepping off a train as I was getting on.
after newsletter promotion
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Creme Eggs.
What does love feel like?
An umbilical cord.
Which living person do you most despise, and why?
Elon Musk, for being the most unimaginative rich person in the world.
What is the worst job you’ve done?
Giving barium enemas. I used to be a radiographer in Coventry.
How often do you have sex?
Define sex.
What would you like to leave your children?
I don’t have children. I will leave my nieces money because girls need money of their own. Anything to make women independent.
What is the closest you’ve come to death?
I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.
What keeps you awake at night?
My husband snoring.
Would you rather have more sex, money or fame?
Money.
How would you like to be remembered?
For ever.
Tell us a joke
Me to my dog, Milo: I hear you’ve been attacking people on a bicycle.
Milo to me: It’s not me, I don’t even own a bike.
Source: theguardian.com
