A Cannibal in Auckland

Rip It Up, Issue 145, 1 August 1989, Page 14

A Cannibal in Auckland

Roland Gift Speaks

Lawrence Olivierisdead. Roland Gift is late. : Lawrence Olivier, actor, died in his bed the nightbefore, aged 83. Roland Gift, actor and singer with apop group named the Fine Young Cannibals, appeared on 3.45 Liveand went out partying for the nightin Auckland.

High upin the 12th floor of the Hyatt, the lovely and mysterious

Anne s plying me with croissants and jam and coffee which is good

because | haven't had breakfast

Neither has Roland; he stayed with friends in Parnell after a night out on the town at Siren and Staircase. “It was throbbing, man,” he says. He was impressedwith the local nightlife. ' Anne plys me some more witha pastry. Roland declines to be plyed. He looks as if he has beenthoroughly plyed last night. Roland has shaved himself all crooked. Butfor Roland, a late night and a crooked shave are about as rough as things are going to get.

This is because the new Fine Young Cannibals album, The Raw And The Cooked, has beenthe No.l selling LP inthe States for six weeks — one of the fastest-breaking British albums ever. Which puts Roland and ex-Beat men Andy Cox (guitars) and David Steele (bass) in a very comfortable position. The album is loose and

carefree and while itwould be

insulting and inaccurate fo call them lazy, the trio are still enjoying what you might call an easy success. Ridiculously easy. §

When Cox and Steele leftthe Beat in 1984 they took with them the talent that made the Beat so great: the knack of writing natty litle pop songs that appealed as much to adults as to teenyboppers. (You couldn'tfind a song that nails Life, the Universe and Dancing much faster than ‘Save It Till Later'.) Unfortunately for Cox and Steele they both have faces like putty tankards and can't sing, so they hired one Roland Gift, recorded ‘Johnny Come Home' and watched the A&R men bouncing off their door for a few weeks. They were clearly ontoagood thing.

In 1985 the FYC recorded their eponymous debut. A shorttour of the USAfollowed in late 1986, during which the group met director Barry Levinson and agreed to write the

score and four songs for his then-new film Tin Men. (Barry later went onto make Rain Man, one of the most

soporific two hours in the history of the world, but that's another story.) In 1987, FYC recorded ‘Ever Fallen In Love'for Jonathan Demme's movie Something Wild. ‘

Alsoin 1987, Roland Gift scored (sic)a major acting role in Stephen Frears’ Sammy And Rosie Get Laid. Scripted by Hanif Kureishi, the film is pure London street-cred and a lot of its worldy cynicism rubbed off on Roland, along with Frances Barber’s lipstick. Meanwhile, Dave and Andy wrote songs for Planes Trains And

Automobiles and released a house / electrosingle Tired Of Getting

Pushed Around’ underthe name Two Men, A Drum Machine And A Trumpet. So:l9B9:theFineYoung Cannibals haven't released an album forfive years; Roland has actedina film about sexin London and torture in Indig; the two other guys have made assilly dance single under a

daftname. Not exactly a ‘ conventional five years. So they goiin and record another album and, gee

willickers Uncle Buck, it goes to No.l in the States for six weeks.

If | were some long-haired glam metaller in the middle of my 18-month tour of the States, I'd be kind of pissed offto hear that. If Iwas in INXS, who went on the road for what, four years, in order to “break the States,” I'd be thoroughly - brassed. If IwereinU2 ... well, I'd not only be alot shorter, I'd also be looking back on that big expensive record | just made with Elvis's mates and all those cuddly black people and thinking, hey, there wasan easier way to do all this.... Roland yawns and settles himself in the comfortable Hyatt chair. Halfway through the interview he starts to fiddle with the air-conditioning switch. Roland doesn't like the air-conditioning to be foo noisy.

Roland and the Cannibals two have been doing a press and promo

tour of Australia. Gruelling stuffe “Yeah. Butwe won't be doing this again for a long time — we don't need to, really. We didn’tknow how successful The Raw And The Cooked would be in terms of sales, so more and more things came up and it got busier and busier. Shows and

interviews kept coming up—the biggeryou get, the more people

wanta piece of you. It's very ennervating— it's not the most creative process. You never join a group saying, ‘Boy, | can'twaitto do some interviews'..."

Has the big gap between records been filled by your soundtrack work? “We did the music for Tin Men, Dave and Andy had a record out, and | did some acting, so that kept the group in people’s minds even though we weren't producing records.” What interests you more, films or musice

“Welll go and see more films than |

do groups, but like doing both, and | get similar things from them. What | don‘twantto happenismypop image o become so strong that | couldn’tgo off and do other things — I'd hate itif that put me in a ghetto. And you can say different thingsin movies, like Sammy And Rosie, for - instance — it'd be difficult to say what that film said in a song. “Then again, the sensibilities you need to be an actor are very similar tothose needed to be asinger — you're interpreting words, and how you say them s very important;

they’re not so far away from each other.”

Did you goto acting school?

“| did amateur drama, workshops — I never wentto drama school. We used to work a lot on improvisation, that was the main thing. “| stopped doing drama and started doing music around punk

time. The music was more immediate

and that was the thing that was - attractive to me; you could get together with some friends, and doiit. Drama’s much more institutionalised. There aren’t many rock schools, although they're gonna start some soon, which | thinkis crazy ..." You've landed two very plum roles —first Sammy And Rosie, then a part in Scandal. Is the Scandal part a big one?

“No, small — but pivotal. You couldn'ttell the story without my character, soit's okay. And only two days work!

“I'mfortunate because most people who are solely actors have to do anything they're offered. They might get a job and thinkit’s shit but they've gotta do it, because they need the money and they need to eat, to raise their profile. They might be playing Buttonsin a pantomime in Clacton on Sea, but they've still gotta doitbecause they need the

experience and the money and t exposure. I've gotaprofile with t group, so | don’t needto do that. still gotta do the job properly, but gives you a good boost,a good ¢ up.”

English actors are notoriously versatile as a result of that constri

“|don't, in some ways, blame people like Charles Bronson, or Anthony Perkins for doing Psych The life of an actor’s really hard ¢ more often than notthey're work forno money at all. When somet getsthe chance to do abad mov andrakeitallin—inaway, | car blame them; they haven'tbeen rewarded all through their lives." Willyou continue with soundir work?

“So long as interesting things ¢ up, yes— we don't really wanftc things that we wouldn'tfeel prou You've gotta have high standard itwould be so easyto lose them ¢ slip into mediocrity.” Do you have highstandards o good timing? “Good standards. The work sg foritself. Good songs don't come chance; they sometimes come overnight but that's because of t investment that you putinto them through your work and life. Ther: been good timing, butifyou're a

right place atthe righttime but if can'tdeliver, it doesn't matter. There's no pointin people comin ashow and then having it all fucl up and you saying yeah, but yesterday we were great. It does mean a thing. You've gotta be g«

The albumiitself still sounds like loose and crazy mix of tight, smc three-minute pop doodles. It's n¢ big album — it still sounds very quicklymade.

“We used to make demos and up using the demo tapes. The sor ''m Not The Man | Used To Be' w replaced everything except the vocal. That kind of thing happen alot of oursongs. So we demo t really high standard soifit's goo cantransferit—in the past we'v had to take things of eight-track eyes upwards) which doesn’t sot so good nowadays. That special thingis very elusive. | don't like it when records are overweight w

B> production— |like them to be lean. “You getto numberonein America and you think, in what way is ourrecord crap? Why isit so high in the charts? What's so shitty about if2 Butl'm quite pleased that it's there — it's something good for people to listen to for a change.” - “We're goingto be playing live in Americain September. They asked us to do concertsthey had a very good argument as fo why we should doitsowesaidyeah —" What was the good argument2 “Thatthey'd sell two million more copiesif we did. (laughs) What convinced us is when we did Saturday Night Live with the Mint Juleps playing keyboards and the restsang. So they'll come out on tour - withus and openthe show, and then come back andjoin the Fine Young Cannibals for awhile. They're really goodto have around, really funny, so touring will be quite good fun.

“There are certain things we do like we always leave the show straight away, we don’thang around meeting people, which pisses the roadies off, roadies like the group to stay because then the girls stay. But you can't oblige everybody.” Thetask ahead of you s still a lot less than that before some young metal band who'll go on the road for 18 months.... : “Thatfrightens me that, it would send you nutty. It's nice to do concerts, butthe bits in between — it's like having to go to a party every night. Butwe're gonna take it easy — have good caterers, amassage in every town,” he smiles. So, what's your next movie role? “l could do a Bond movie. | could be James Bond's sidekick who gets killed halfway through.” Roland Gift smiles. That would suit himjustfine.

CHAD TAYLOR