Roland Gift | |
|---|---|
 Gift pictured at a Grammy rehearsal in 1990 | |
| Born | Roland Lee Gift 28 May 1961 Birmingham, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1978−present |
| Known for | Member of Fine Young Cannibals and Akrylykz |
| Children | 2 |
Roland Lee Gift (born 28 May 1961) [1] is a British musician and actor. He is the former lead vocalist of the pop rock band Fine Young Cannibals.
Gift was born on 28 May 1961 in the Sparkhill district of Birmingham, [2] to an English mother and an Afro-Caribbean father. He lived in Sparkhill until the age of 11, receiving his early formal education at Anderton Park School and Arden Primary School. [3] His family then moved to Kingston upon Hull, where his mother, Pauline, ran several second-hand clothes shops, while he was a pupil at Kelvin Hall School.
Gift's first recording was as a saxophonist with Akrylykz, a ska band from Hull. The album was the second release on York's Red Rhino Records. [4] Although this record was unsuccessful, it did bring him to the attention of Andy Cox and David Steele of the Beat. Akrylykz toured with the Beat, [5] which led to them, in around 1985, asking him to be the lead singer of their new band Fine Young Cannibals after their old band, the Beat, had broken up. He also was a guest artist on the Ska City Rockers' "Time Is Tight" single.
In 1990, he was named by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" in the world.
Gift has performed as a solo artist, appearing at the Rewind Festival in Henley. [6] On 13 February 2012, Gift appeared on BBC Radio Solent promoting the gigs and announced a potential new album in 2012. This would be a soundtrack to a film Gift was apparently involved with. "The Prisoner" was played on the show and Gift said this would probably be included in the soundtrack.
He also appeared in Jools Holland's 20th annual Hootenanny show, which aired overnight on BBC2 on 31 December 2012 / 1 January 2013, [7] the last to be recorded at BBC Television Centre. Gift sang the Fine Young Cannibals hits "Good Thing" and "Suspicious Minds".
Gift was a guest vocalist on Jools Holland's 2013 tour. [8]
10 years after his first Hootenanny appearance, Gift re-appeared in Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny show again, which aired overnight on BBC2 on 31 December 2022 / 1 January 2023. [9] Gift sang the Fine Young Cannibals hits "Suspicious Minds" and "Good Thing".
In 1987, Gift had his first screen role in the film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid , and also appeared in Out of Order the same year. In 1990 he did his first stage work, playing Romeo in the Hull Truck Theatre's production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , a production which had a brief run in the United States at the Staller Center for the Arts. [10] He also appeared as a lounge singer (singing songs that were included in the Fine Young Cannibals' album The Raw and the Cooked ) in the 1987 film Tin Men , directed by Barry Levinson. [11]
In 1989, he appeared in Scandal as Johnny Edgecombe, Christine Keeler's boyfriend.
In December 1992, he began the first of five appearances as the evil Immortal Xavier St. Cloud in the television series Highlander: The Series , and appeared in a 1993 episode of the Yorkshire Television series Heartbeat (Ser. 2 Ep 5). He also had a small role as the jazz saxophonist Eddie Mullen in the mini-series Painted Lady (1997), starring Helen Mirren, and appeared in the movie The Island of the Mapmaker's Wife (2001).
In 1997, he appeared in a series of commercials to launch BankDirect, an internet and phone based bank. [12]
In 2020, he starred as Johnny Holloway, an ex-pop star sent to jail, in the BBC Radio 4 musical drama Return to Vegas. Gift wrote the play and co-composed the music together with Ben Barson, brother of Madness's Mike Barson). [13] [14] [15]
Gift has three sisters, Helga, Ragna, and Jay, and one brother, Paul.
One of Gift's two sons, [16] Louis, was a member of an experimental acrobatic circus company called the Barely Methodical Troupe, which staged a public performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016. [17]
His wife Louise died in 2019. [16]
| Year | Information | UK Albums Chart |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Roland Gift
| — |
| Year | Single | UK Singles Chart | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "It's Only Money" | 123 | |
| 2009 | "Crushed" *(as Roland Lee Gift) | — | Non-album single |
Sir Thomas Jones Woodward is a Welsh singer. His career began with a string of top 10 hits in the 1960s and he has since toured regularly, with appearances in Las Vegas from 1967 to 2011. His voice has been described by AllMusic as a "full-throated, robust baritone".
Julian Miles Holland is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Joss Stone, Jayne County, Tom Jones, José Feliciano, Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Ringo Starr, Bono, Rod Stewart and Ruby Turner.
Later... with Jools Holland is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jools Holland. A spin-off of The Late Show, it has been running in short series since 8 October 1992 and is now part of BBC Two's Saturday Night Music block, usually broadcast at around 10pm. The day of transmission has varied over the years, but it is usually recorded on a Tuesday for Saturday broadcast and features a mixture of both established and new musical artists, from solo performers to bands and larger ensembles.
Fine Young Cannibals (FYC) were an English pop rock band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1984 by former The Beat band bassist David Steele and guitarist Andy Cox with singer Roland Gift. Their self-titled 1985 debut album contained "Johnny Come Home" and a cover of "Suspicious Minds", two songs that were top 40 hits in the UK, Canada, Australia and Europe. Their 1989 album, The Raw & the Cooked, topped the UK, US, Australian and Canadian album charts, and contained their two Billboard Hot 100 number ones: "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing".
Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group the Aces, he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 " (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).
Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonicist, radio personality and television presenter. He first came to prominence as the original lead singer and harmonicist of the rock band Manfred Mann (1962–66) with whom he had several hit records including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Pretty Flamingo".
Sparkhill is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, situated between Springfield, Hall Green and Sparkbrook.
Fine Young Cannibals is the debut studio album released in 1985 by the band of the same name. The album features the UK #8 debut hit single "Johnny Come Home".
The Raw & the Cooked is the second and final studio album by British rock band Fine Young Cannibals, released in 1989. The title of the album was lifted from the book of the same name by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Four songs from the album first appeared in film soundtracks in the mid-1980s, three of which were soul tracks from the Tin Men film. The band had already recorded over half of the album by the time David Z came to produce the remainder. His work with the band, which resulted in dance-rock material, included studio experimentation.
Graham McPherson, known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor.
Francella Ruby Turner MBE is a British Jamaican R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and actress.
Jools' Annual Hootenanny is a TV show presented by Jools Holland and broadcast on New Year's Eve as an end-of-year special edition of his series Later... with Jools Holland on BBC Two in the United Kingdom since 1994.
"Good Thing" is a song by British band Fine Young Cannibals, released as the second single from their second and last album, The Raw & the Cooked (1989). The song was their second and final US number-one, topping the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 July 1989. It also peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart. The song made its first appearance in Tin Men (1987). Fine Young Cannibals portrayed a nightclub band in the movie, performing this song and three others. The film is set in Baltimore in 1963, and the song's retro soul style is consistent with that setting. Jools Holland played piano on the track, noting that it was "one of the biggest selling records I've ever played on".
The Finest is a greatest hits album by British rock band Fine Young Cannibals, released in 1996 by London Records and licensed in the United States to MCA Records. It includes tracks from the band's two studio albums Fine Young Cannibals (1985) and The Raw & the Cooked (1989), plus a track from the film Something Wild and three new tracks. "The Flame" was released as an accompanying single, making number 17 in the UK chart.
"Johnny Come Home" is a song by British band Fine Young Cannibals, released as the first single from their debut album, Fine Young Cannibals (1985). It is similar to the style of many other of the band's hits, a mixture of rock and ska with Roland Gift's distinctive vocals, as well as a jazz-type trumpet solo. It was released in May 1985 by London Records and was one of the group's most popular hits. The song tells the gritty realistic story of a runaway youth, and alternates from the first-person narrative, explaining how his arrival in the big city has not turned out as he expected, to the view of the parents in the chorus, expressing their wish that he would come home.
Dave Swift is a British bassist. He is best known for his work on the BBC2 Television program Later... with Jools Holland as part of Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.
Akrylykz were a British ska band, formed by members of Hull School of Art in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that featured Roland Gift originally as a tenor saxophonist, but his role later expanded to frontman and lead singer. Other members of the group were Steve Pears, Stevie "B" Robottom, Wojciech "Piotr" Swiderski (drums), Michael "Fred" Reynolds (bass), and Nik "Akrylyk" Townend (guitar).
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Muireann Bradley is an Irish musician from Ballybofey, County Donegal who plays country blues. She appeared on Jools' Annual Hootenanny on 31 December 2023. Following her appearance on the show, her album I Kept These Old Blues entered the top ten of the UK Albums Download Chart.
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