Roland Gift

At one time picked by People as one of their 50 most beautiful people, Roland Gift came dramatically to attention with the release of the first Fine Young Cannibals album. His high, soaring voice was immediately recognizable, his style being based both in classic soul singers and in modern techniques that provided him an edge. It was with the second FYC album four years later, however, that the band began to break internationally, with "She Drives Me Crazy" being heard everywhere, in movies, on television, on the radio. Gift spent the earlier part of his life knocking about the Midlands, first working as a saxophonist with punk band Blue Kitchen, moving on from there to the Acrylic Victims, eventually joining Fine Young Cannibals after the disintegration of the (English) Beat sent Andy Cox and David Steele in search of a vocalist. The naming of the band after the 1960 movie All the Fine Young Cannibals (based on the Rosamond Marshall novel) was likely no accident, as Gift certainly harbored acting ambitions. He turned up in a key role in Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, a controversial film by Stephen Frears, following that with small parts for several years, until his 1989 appearance as Johnnie Edgecombe in Scandal. Since then, he has appeared in four episodes of the Highlander TV series. The only on-disc appearance of Fine Young Cannibals since 1989 has been the greatest-hits compilation Fine Young Cannibals' Finest in 1996. ~ Steven McDonald, Rovi