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🇯🇲 Jamaica · 1968 — present

Inner Circle

Inner Circle sounds like Jamaica in its purest form: rhythms that sway between soul and reggae, with voices that shout party and a touch of rebellion. The group was formed in 1968 by brothers Ian and Roger Lewis, but it was the arrival of Jacob Miller that gave them that unmistakable air. Miller didn’t just sing: his energy on stage and his way of connecting with the audience made them more listened to in Jamaica than Bob Marley in his prime. The group even appeared in the 1978 film Rockers, a reggae classic that cemented their place in the local scene.

The leap to other markets came with Everything Is Great, recorded in 1979 for Island Records. The album not only entered the UK top 20 but marked a turning point: for the first time, Inner Circle’s reggae reached an international audience. But the hardest blow came in 1980, when Miller died in an accident. The band fell apart for a while, though in 1982 they returned with Something So Good. The comeback was slow until 1986, when they reunited with a new vocalist, Calton Coffie, and released Black Roses.

Reggae 1960s
1 Albums
18 Songs

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1 album|s · 1992

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Biography

The change of voice brought an unexpected twist. In 1989, with Coffie at the helm, they recorded "Bad Boys" and proclaimed themselves the "bad boys of reggae." The song, later used in the series COPS, turned them into a global phenomenon. But their biggest success came in 1993 with "Sweat (A La La La La Long)", a track that made its way onto radios worldwide. Coffie left the band in 1995 due to health issues, and his place was taken by Kris Bentley. By 2012, the band dared to cross genres with "Fly Away", a collaboration with Don Omar on Caribbean Connection, blending reggae and reggaeton.

Details

Born
1 Jan 1968
Country
🇯🇲 Jamaica
Genre
Reggae

Members

· actual
Bernard “Touter” Harvey
· actual
Ian Lewis
· actual
Jacob Miller
· actual
Lancelot Hall
additional, backing vocals, electric guitar, keyboards · actual
Michael Sterling
· actual
Roger Lewis
keyboards · 1973–1982
Charles Farquharson
· 1986–1994
Calton Coffie
Lester Adderley

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