Roland when things are not what they seem on the surface, like ganja being really associated with Jamaicans or West Indians, but it was Indians hat took it over there, and ganja was being called that because it’ s named after the Ganges River in India. So I like it when things sort of seem like,“ Oh, this is very English” or“ This is very American.” But actually, there’ s a lot of other influences that don’ t necessarily get promoted, but are there, if you just kind of look under the surface.
IE: Where did your dad hail from? And how did he influence you musically, growing up? RG: He came( to Britain) in’ 58, and he was from St. Kitts, but I think probably Calypso was more his thing than reggae, really. But I don’ t remember him being that mad on music— we did have a Radiogram, and it’ s like a piece of furniture, but it’ s also a record player. It’ s the kind of thing that people used to have in their houses, kind of like a big piece of furniture that you could store your records in, and then lift the lid and you could put them on under the lid, and it looked like a slide board. So we used to have that. But I don’ t really remember what he liked that much, but there were Calypso and reggae records. You know the card company, Hallmark? They used to do records, and they used to do knockoffs of reggae records that were already out, and they would have session musicians play on these. And I think Elton John had played on them when he was first starting out— they had good musicians on them, but they were kind of like knockoffs of existing reggae tracks.
IE: Well, I would be remiss if I didn’ t throw your mom in there, too. How did she influence you with her( secondhand shop) access to the most fabulous clothes around? Did you just drop by the shop and say,“ Mom, I’ ll take this and this and this …” RG: Yeah, I’ d drop by the secondhand shop. But my mom was a bit funny— she often wouldn’ t want to sell you things, and she wouldn’ t often let you take them, because
Fine Young Cannibals, 1985
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8 illinoisentertainer. com january 2026