Roland Gift

Born in Birmingham in 1961 in the Sparkhill district, Roland Gift first made his name in a ska register, playing saxophone with Akrylykz, a group formed in Hull and active in the early 1980s. That period brought him into contact with Andy Cox and David Steele, former members of The Beat, who invited him to become the voice of Fine Young Cannibals. With this British trio, Roland Gift developed a style situated between pop rock, soul, new wave and rhythm and blues, driven by a taut, supple and immediately identifiable vocal. Fine Young Cannibals released Fine Young Cannibals in 1985, featuring “Johnny Come Home” and a cover of “Suspicious Minds”, and The Raw & the Cooked in 1989, which yielded “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing”. After that period, Roland Gift pursued more occasional solo activity, with the album Roland Gift in 2002 and the single “Crushed” in 2009 under the name Roland Lee Gift. His career also includes stage and screen work, while remaining tied to the Fine Young Cannibals repertoire, which he regularly reinterprets in concert, notably during appearances with Jools Holland.