Gig review: The Selecter, Glasgow Oran Mor

THE socio-political parallels between Britain at the turn of the Eighties and the present day are easy enough to draw, but the current economic downturn doesn’t seem to have done much to galvanise a reaction from the country’s musicians.

The Selecter manned the barricades first time round as part of the 2 Tone ska revival and, while they might now be considered part of a heritage movement, their new album, Made In Britain, makes clear its provocative intentions, borrowing Woody Guthrie’s line “all you fascists bound to lose” on opening track Big In The Body, Small In The Mind.

For the fans, though, this show – reuniting frontwoman Pauline Black with her toasting sidekick Gaps Hendrickson – was more of a nostalgic party.

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These old sparring partners made a dynamic, charismatic but also fun-loving frontline. The rest of the band were hired hands but rock solid and confident enough to spice up the signature ska sound with funk bass, fluttering flute and Hammond organ licks.

Their treatment of the older songs was potent but, compared to the upbeat, angular urgency of Three Minute Hero and On My Radio or the full-bodied soulful, rhythmic momentum of Missing Words, their new material felt a little lightweight musically, sugarcoating its bitter lyrical pills with a more generic ska knees-up approach.

Their souped-up reggae interpretations of the James Bond theme and Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black were more sophisticated additions to a set which was consistently energetic and, more often than not, colourful.

Rating: ****

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