Fine Young Cannibals

From the embers of the Ska scene a new group formed in Birmingham. David Steele and Andy Cox from The Beat joined forces with ex-Akrylykz lead singer Roland Gift to form the Fine Young Cannibals which gained it's name from the film 'All the Fine Young Cannibals'.

Despite the Beat success they had great difficulty in obtaining a record contract and it took an appearance on The Tube whilst singing 'Johnny come home' sparked a flurry of offers from would be companies and eventually signed for IRS records.

They released the self titled album late in 1985 and the album had great success and reached number 11 in the UK album charts. Four singles were released from the album, with two of them reaching the top 10, those in the dock were 'Johnny come home' and the Elvis Presley cover 'Suspicious minds' which also featured Jimmy Somerville on backing vocals. Both songs reached number 8 and success loomed large.

They were starting to get noticed over in America and they contributed a non album single for the soundtrack of the film 'Something Wild'. They did a cover of the Buzzcocks 'Ever fallen in love' and the song again hit the top 10. Shortly after Steele and Cox worked on a solo project for a film called 'Tin Men' and released a single 'Tired of getting pushed around'. The song reached the top 20 under the guise of Two men a drum machine and a Trumpet!

In 1988 we saw the second and last studio album released by the band. It was named 'The raw and cooked' and was a perfect way to end it. The album reached number one in the UK and America and the album displayed some of there finest material. Also four singles were released of the album during the eighties with 'she drives me crazy' reaching number 5 in the UK and number 1 in America. The follow up 'good thing' reached number 7 in the UK and again hit the top in America.

On the back of that album the band won two BRIT awards for best album and best group. However, the band split in 1992 but the mixture of pop, rock and soul backed with Roland Gift unique voice and Steele and Cox guitar dance they made a great impression on the buying public.

During the 1980s the band released two studio albums and released 10 singles with 5 hitting the top 10 in the UK. There best achievement was 'She drives me crazy' peaking at number 5.