Inner Circle - Reggae Band

The reggae group Inner Circle was formed in 1968 by the brothers Ian and Roger Lewis in Jamaica. They are responsible for the 1989 song "Bad Boys," which serves as the theme song for Fox Network's long-running television program COPS. However, at first they covered soul and R&B hits from the United States, and then also a few reggae songs, predominantly from Bob Marley.

The band released its debut album in 1974 on the famed record label, Trojan Records, and resigned in 1979 to Island Records, where the internationally successful album Everything Is Great originated. This album reached top 20 in the UK and preceded their other chart success by some years.

The original Inner circle band included Ibo Cooper (key boards), Steven Cat Core (Guitar), Funky Brown(bermudian expatriate vocalist) Prilly (vocalist) Ian and Roger Lewis and Mr. Lewis. The bands residence was originally on Holborn road in new kingston. In latter years they had a brass section that included Llewelyn Chang on alto sax and Leighton Johnson on trumpet both former menbers of the Excelsior High School band. During that time the band toured extensively to North America and Bermuda. At the end of this time Ibo,and Cat went off to start their own band which was Third world band whose hits include, "now that we've found love" and "ninety degrees in the shade" Ibo, Cat, and Funky Brown were at this time students of the University of the West Indies studying for various degrees.

Inner Circle was decidedly influenced through the original member Jacob Miller, the frontman and lead singer who was killed in a car crash on March 23, 1980. At the end of the 1970s Inner Circle with Jacob "Killer" Miller was more popular in Jamaica than Bob Marley. The band also appeared in the reggae cult film Rockers in 1978.

After the loss of Jacob Miller, Inner Circle broke up, but in 1982 another album called Something So Good was released. In 1986 Ian and Roger Lewis re-established Inner Circle with the singer Calton Coffie, and the band experienced a comeback with the album Black Roses.

In 1989, Inner Circle released the song "Bad Boys." Since then, the band calls itself "The Bad Boys of Reggae". They had another big hit with the 1993 song "Sweat (A La La La La Long)".

The lead singer Calton Coffie was ill for a long period in 1995 and decided after his recuperation to start a solo career. The current singer Kris Bentley took his place.

See You in Jamaica