World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Inner Circle

Band. Reggae

Active
1968-present
Also recorded as
Fatman Riddim Section

Inner Circle is a Jamaican band formed in Kingston in 1968 by the brothers Ian and Roger Lewis, on bass and guitar respectively. Its career divides between a roots period fronted by Jacob Miller and a later run of international pop hits.

Around 1969 the band was based at the Tunnel, an uptown Kingston club, and was fronted for about two years by the singer William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke, later of Third World. The band backed the Chosen Few in the early 1970s. When most of the lineup left in 1973 to form Third World, the Lewis brothers rebuilt around the keyboard players Bernard "Touter" Harvey and Charles Farquharson and the drummer Calvin "Rasheed" McKenzie, worked the Kingston hotel and club circuit, and issued "Dread Reggae Hits" on the Top Ranking label. Two albums for Trojan followed in 1974 and 1975.

Jacob Miller, already a successful solo singer, joined in the mid-1970s and turned the group toward roots material. Ian Lewis claimed for it "an energy in performance that was never seen" and said, "We was the first band to play dub on stage." "Tenement Yard," "All Night Till Daylight," "Forward Jah Jah Children," and "Tired fe Lick Weed in a Bush" date from these years; several were credited to Miller alone although the band played them, and they came out on labels such as Sweet City, Penetrate and Arab. Capitol signed the group and released Reggae Thing (1976) and Ready for the World (1977). They played the One Love Peace Concert in April 1978 and appear in the film of it, Heartland Reggae, and the attention led to a contract with Island, whose Everything Is Great (1979) was a hit in Europe.

In Rockers, Inner Circle plays the house band at a resort hotel, with Miller as its singer and the film's protagonist, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, sitting in on drums; the tune is "Tenement Yard."

Miller lost his life in a car accident on March 23, 1980. The band completed one further American tour with Norman Grant of the Twinkle Brothers singing, then relocated to Miami, where the Lewis brothers and Harvey built a studio and later opened Circle House. Reformed in 1986 with Calton Coffie on lead vocals, they recorded "Bad Boys" for the album One Way in 1987. Fox adopted it as the theme for Cops in 1989; it topped the charts in Norway and Finland in 1991 and reached number eight in the United States on its 1993 release there. "Sweat (A La La La La Long)," from Bad to the Bone (1992), was the larger hit in Europe. The American reissue of that album, retitled Bad Boys, won the Grammy for best reggae album.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Wikipedia, citing Dave Thompson's Reggae & Caribbean Music (2002), names the founders as the Lewis brothers with Stephen "Cat" Coore and Michael "Ibo" Cooper. "Inner Circle (band)," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Circle_(band).
  2. Katz says Clarke "began fronting Inner Circle" after returning from New York within a year of leaving in 1968, when the band included Stephen "Cat" Coore, Michael "Ibo" Cooper, and Irvin "Carrot" Jarrett, and that he "led Inner Circle for the next two years." David Katz, "RIP Bunny Rugs, Vocalist of Third World," Red Bull Music Academy Daily, February 10, 2014, https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/02/bunny-rugs-rip.
  3. Wikipedia says they first appeared on record in 1970 behind the Chosen Few on the Derrick Harriott production "Why Can't I Touch You," with the instrumental credited to the Inner Circle Band on the B-side, and that Coore, Cooper, and Milton Hamilton left to form Third World in 1973. "Inner Circle (band)."
  4. The Rough Guide lists Top Ranking among the labels of the producer Tommy Cowan, with Sweet City, Talent, and Arab. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 65. Wikipedia, citing Thompson and Billboard (1980), calls Top Ranking Ian Lewis's label and dates the album to 1973. "Inner Circle (band)." Discogs lists the album as Dread Reggay Hits, issued in 1974 on Starapple in Jamaica and on Trojan (TRLS 93) in Britain. "The Innercircle: Dread Reggay Hits," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/266559.
  5. Discogs lists the British issue of Dread Reggay Hits on Trojan in 1974 and Trojan singles in 1975, but no second Trojan album. "Inner Circle," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/37236.
  6. The Rough Guide calls Miller "for a while second in Jamaican popularity only to Marley" and says Inner Circle was the band with which he "had become the most popular live act in Jamaica." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200, 242.
  7. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Inner Circle (2015, Part 2)," United Reggae, July 20, 2015, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1893/072015/interview-inner-circle-2015-part-2.
  8. The Rough Guide dates "Forward Jah Jah Children" (Sweet City) to 1974 and "Tenement Yard" (Penetrate) and "Tired To Lick Weed In A Bush" (Arab), his "two largest hits," to a year later, and gives "All Night Daylight" as his 1976 Song Festival entry. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200, 202. It names Sweet City and Arab among Tommy Cowan's labels. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65. Wikipedia, citing Thompson, notes that "Tenement Yard" was credited to Miller alone. "Inner Circle (band)."
  9. Wikipedia, citing Thompson. "Inner Circle (band)." See also "Inner Circle: Reggae Thing," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/101542; "Inner Circle: Ready for the World," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/74831.
  10. Bradley places Inner Circle on the bill of the One Love Peace Concert on Saturday, April 22, 1978. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 472. Wikipedia dates the Island album to 1978 and names "Everything Is Great" and "Stop Breaking My Heart" as British hit singles. "Inner Circle (band)." Discogs dates the LP (Island ILPS 9558) to 1979. "Inner Circle: Everything Is Great," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/74834.
  11. The Rough Guide notes that Miller starred in Rockers. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200. Wikipedia's plot summary has Horsemouth asked to drum with Miller and members of Inner Circle for a gig at a tourist resort, but does not name the song. "Rockers (1978 film)," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_(1978_film).
  12. The Rough Guide confirms that he died in a car crash and gives his dates as 1955 to 1980. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200. The day is from Wikipedia. "Inner Circle (band)."
  13. Wikipedia, whose source for the Norman Grant tour is a fan wiki. "Inner Circle (band)."
  14. Wikipedia says the 1986 lineup added Coffie and the drummer Lancelot Hall. "Inner Circle (band)." One Way came out in October 1987, according to a Miami Herald report cited in "Bad Boys (Inner Circle song)," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Boys_(Inner_Circle_song).
  15. Wikipedia says the song was re-recorded for the 1989 album Identified before becoming the Cops theme that year, and that it reached number one in Norway and Finland as a 1991 single. "Inner Circle (band)."; "Bad Boys (Inner Circle song)."
  16. Wikipedia says "Sweat" reached number three in Britain, number two on the Eurochart Hot 100, and number one in Germany and Switzerland, and peaked at number 16 in the United States. "Sweat (A La La La La Long)," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_(A_La_La_La_La_Long).
  17. Wikipedia lists "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle as the winner at the 1994 Grammy Awards. "Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Reggae_Album.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map