Here's one man who claims he's going to give it the coup de grace.

"My song Roller Coaster is going to be even bigger than Agadoo," claims Irie White, who must be Sheffield's only reggae performer who sings in Italian.

Born in the West Indies to a Barbadian father and Italian mother, he came to England, grew up in a children's home and was making pizzas in an Italian restaurant until he took up singing.

"One night the act didn't turn up so I did it," says Irie, who looks and sounds completely white until he starts to sing reggae.

He's been singing Roller Coaster ever since they first started building the one at the Fantasy Island pleasure park at Ingoldmells nine years ago.

"I thought no one had ever written a song about a roller coaster before," he says.

"People are still wanting it. Every year it gets bigger and bigger and it's got its own dance moves I've devised," says Irie, from Gleadless.

He's a regular at Fantasy Island and next year he's got his own season of cabaret and family shows there – and will be performing Roller Coaster.

"He's fantastic," says a Fantasy spokesman.

Irie – it means feeling good in Caribbean patois – is also hoping the company will get behind the record.

His real name is Leroy Ford and he's aged 45. Some people in the entertainment business reckon that is getting on a bit but not him.

"Music is not about age, it's about doing it and enjoying it," says Irie, whose act includes numbers by Bob Marley, Jim Reeves and Otis Redding but half the music is his own.

He moved to Sheffield a couple of years ago from Grimsby for love and married his wife Trudi, a city girl, in Jamaica in January.

"She stalked me for four years, then we kissed," he says.

He didn't learn Italian from his mother – the family split up when they came to England – but from working with Italian waiters and playing cards with them.

"They cheat – I didn't let on I could speak the language for two years," he says.

Irie has not had too many gigs in his adopted Sheffield but has had success abroad. He got to number 16 in Germany with a song called Whoopsie Mama in 1996 and claims a number one there with a dance track, No Peace in the World, in 2000.

"I am a chef first of all and if I don't succeed I can always go back to making pizzas," he says.

Irie is at the Yew Tree, Coal Aston, on Thursday, November 27. You can hear his music at www.showcase yourmusic.com/mririewhite