Roland Gift
Midland's Fine Young Cannibals emerged in 1983, when half of the demised Beat, Andy Cox and David Steele persuaded Roland Gift to abandon the London Blues Combo Acrylic Victims and join them. The trio took their name from a Robert Wagner film of a similar name. From the debut single Johnny Come Home in 1985 through to their critically acclaimed two million-selling album, The Raw And The Uncooked, which held the Number One spot for most of the summer of 1989, Gift's intriguing persona and soul-influenced voice, with its falsetto range and deep-throated quaverings, and the fusion of pop hooks, skarhythms and dance beats supplied by Steele and Cox, were a winning formula, FYC famously returned their two Brit awards in 1990, saying it was "wrong and inappropriate for [them] to be associated with what amounts to a photo opportunity for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party." By this point, Gift's acting career, appearing in Tin Men, Sammy And Rosie Get Laid And Scandal - had steered him away from FYC. Now the erstwhile actor returns to his music roots and performs a solo show this evening. Good thing, where have you gone? The Beck's Famous Spiegeltent, Princes St, Edinburgh (0131-5588010) 11,30pm, £12.Matthew Keating
