Ian
and Roger Lewis are the founding members of the reggae sensation
Inner Circle, formed in Kingston, Jamaica in 1968 with Cooper,
Coore & Daly. With popularity they made a good living playing
in Jamaica's North Coast hotel lounges. In the early '70s when the
three other musicians left to start their own group, Third World,
solo artist Jacob Miller joined the Lewis brothers. A devout
Rastafarian, he changed the direction of the band and soon they
all had dreadlocks and began playing covers of popular reggae
hits. They also wrote their own songs that became noted for both
their earnestness and catchy pop tunes. Considered lite reggae,
but still rocking steady and focused on typical reggae issues such
as Jah-love and social consiciousness their music was done in a
way to invite mass appeal.
The
band got their first taste of international acclaim in 1976 when
Capitol Records signed them. During the mid-'70s, Inner Circle had
recorded a bit with the American disco band KC and the Sunshine
Band. However, their true international success came after being
spotted while taking part in the famous Jamaican Festival which
had a crowd of over 40,000 people, and the concert was documented
in the film, Heartland Reggae. International audiences loved it
and they became quite popular, especially in the U.S. Their 1978
record, "Everything is Great" found its way to the UK
Top 20 and France Top 10. With popular singles, Mary, Mary and
Music Machine, Inner Circle was on their way up when lead singer,
Jacob Killer Miller was killed in a car crash in 1980. The band
felt that they could not continue without him.
Six
years passed before the band returned to the studio. The Lewis
brothers had opened their own studio in Miami and out of that
session came the critically acclaimed record "One Way".
Eventually they reformed the band with new lead singer Carlton
Coffey and in the early '90s and had success. Inner Circle was on
the comeback trail in 1991 when they flexed their Euro-market
muscle with the #1 Scandinavian hit "Bad Boys", known to
millions around the world as the theme song for the Fox Television
program, COPS. The following summer, Inner Circle totally
conquered the Americas when their sexy song, "Sweat (A La La
La La Long)" exploded all over Europe; breaking in Sweden
first, where it topped the radio charts for two months. All of
their efforts were rewarded that year when they were awarded the
American Grammy for the Best Reggae Act of 1994.
Their
follow-up album, "Reggae Dancer" was released worldwide
a few months later. The record included the song "Summer
Jammin", featured in the movie sound track for Eddie Murphy's
Beverly Hills Cop III. In 1995 the band received another Grammy
nomination for their "Reggae Dancer" album and "Bad
Boys" became the theme song for the Blockbuster Feature Film,
Bad Boys, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. During the same
year, lead singer, Calton fell ill and had to be hospitalized and
facing a long recovery period, the band connected with Kris
Bentley. The former lead singer of the popular Jamaican group,
Skool, Bentley was a native of Kingston, Jamaica and winner of the
1994 Caribbean Music Song Festival. He was asked to stay with the
group when Calton decided to pursue a solo career upon his
recovery . With that, the current Inner Circle was complete
|