In her earlier years her first performances came as a member of reggae band Black Jade, before she signed solo to Bluebird Records in 1980, a label set up by the local record shop in Paddington, north London. Two tracks, a cover version of the Police’s ‘The Bed’s Too Big without you’ and ‘Fool for you’, emerged, while she was still engaged in her day job as a sports tutor.
They were enough to attract the attention of fellow Londoners the Funk Masters. She appeared as lead singer on the band’s 1983 UK Top 10 hit, ‘It’s over’. After a year’s sabbatical in the USA she embarked on her music career proper, and, within a week of returning to British shores, was enlisted as singer for Latin jazz band Working Week.