Player given an awful roasting (8)
I believe the answer is:
organist
'player' is the definition.
(I know that organist is a type of player)
'an awful roasting' is the wordplay.
'an awful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'roasting' anagrammed gives 'ORGANIST'.
'given' is the link.
(Other definitions for organist that I've seen before include "Accompanist, keyboard player" , "Church instr. player" , "One plays in church usually" , "Roasting (anag)" , "Cathedral musician" .)