NADINE SUTHERLAND

About Nadine from the Tuff Gong years

b. 1968, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. She began performing in 1980 and balanced her recording career, which was managed by her parents, with her education. She studied business administration at college and when Bob Marley heard her work, she was recruited to Tuff Gong. Following on from his unsuccessful Wail ‘N' Soul venture, a determined Marley put all his energies into the ‘Gong' and signed newcomers Sutherland and Dallol along with Rita Marley, Tyrone Taylor and the Melody Makers. Sutherland's live appearances helped to groom her for stardom and she performed outside of Jamaica in 1982 at a memorial concert for Bob Marley, alongside Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers, the I-Threes and the Wailers. Viewed by many as a soft alternative to the ghetto sounds, Sutherland was unable to make an impression in the reggae charts. In 1986 she toured supporting Bunny Wailer in the USA along with Leroy Sibbles of the Heptones.