The Jamaican reggae singer Sugar Minott, who has died unexpectedly aged 54, had a prolific solo career from the 1970s onwards. He scored his biggest hit with Good Thing Going, a cover version of a recording by Michael Jackson. Minott's single reached No 4 in the UK in 1981 and prompted a well-received follow-up album of the same name. Minott worked with many of Jamaica's leading producers, including Coxsone Dodd, Mikey Dread and Sly & Robbie, and also nurtured younger artists through his Black Roots label and his company Youthman Promotion.
He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and began working with local sound systems (groups of disc jockeys and MCs) before he reached his teens. "I started singing when I was about 12, in an amateur talent festival near where I lived in Maxfield Park in Kingston," he recalled. "I reached the final with two others, but didn't win. It gave me some encouragement to go on, really." He cited as his musical inspirations Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson and Dennis Brown.
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