MISSING IN ACTION: The Fine Young Cannibals...

MISSING IN ACTION: The Fine Young Cannibals are overdue for an album--so overdue, in fact, that some fans are wondering if the English trio hasn’t quietly checked into the rock ‘n’ roll graveyard. They have yet to follow up their 1989 hit album “The Raw and the Cooked,” featuring the smash single “She Drives Me Crazy.” Since that 2.7-million seller, all the band has released is a 1990 album of remixes.

FYC fans have long feared that singer Roland Gift--touted by some critics as a second coming of Otis Redding--might leave the group because he seemed more interested in acting than singing. Besides roles in the movies “Scandal” and “Sammy & Rosie Get Laid,” he performed in England and New York in a production of “Romeo and Juliet.”

But fans can rest easy. The word from MCA Records is that Gift hasn’t traded in his rock ‘n’ roll shoes for greasepaint. He and fellow Cannibals Andy Cox and David Steele (who spent some of their off-time producing rapper Monie Love’s album) are working on a new album, tentatively slated to be ready in the fall.