[2][3] His parents immigrated to the United Kingdom from Carriacou, Grenada, as part of the Windrush generation.

[2][4] He grew up in the Ladbroke Grove area of West London and studied at the Holland Park School in his hometown where he met his future bandmates Tony Robinson and Brinsley Forde.

[3][5] Gaye took an interest in drumming after a cousin, who was a drummer, started living at his family home as a tenant.

His father bought him his first drum at the age of eight so he would stop damaging family property and Gaye eventually became a kit drummer in the local steelpan band called the "Metronomes".

[2][4] As the songs of the band became more commercial-oriented in nature in the 1980s, he started assuming most of the lead vocalist duties and eventually replaced Forde.