成军至今已廿余年的Inner Circle，堪称地球表面最受欢迎的雷鬼乐团之一。来自牙买加Kingston的他们不仅曾以"Bad Boys"、"Sweat (A La La La Long)"等排行劲曲响誉全球，更在1994年获得葛莱美奖「最佳雷鬼乐团」奖项的肯定。 Inner Circle组成七O年代中期，创始成员包括有贝斯手Ian、吉他手Roger Lewis两兄弟与主唱Jacob Miller。1978年Inner Circle以英国榜前廿名大碟「Everything Is Great」走红欧美，但乐团的发展却在80年因Miller车祸丧生而中断，直到加入了新主唱Calton Coffie与鼓手Lancelot Hall，才于86年推出备受好评的回归大碟「One Way」。92年，收录"Bad Boys"与"Sweat"两曲的「Bad To The Bone」专辑令Inner Circle再创事业新高，而95年Inner Circle更再度以「Raggae Dancer」专辑获得葛莱美奖「最佳雷鬼专辑」奖项提名。不幸的是，Coffie此时因病必须长期疗养，于是这个空缺便由刚离团单飞的前Skool乐团主唱Kris Bentley递补。96年，Inner Circle发表了「Da Bomb」专辑，并举行为期近三年的世界巡回演唱，足迹遍及南、北美洲、亚洲、太平洋岛国甚至中东地区，而98年的新作「Jamaika Me Crazy」即是旅途中蕴酿成形，并于迈阿密海滩的专属录音室Circle House录制完成的精采大碟。「Jamaika Me Crazy」中绝大多数的歌曲均是由Lewis兄弟和键盘手Bernard Harvey创作及制作，而乐风则在雷鬼乐的基调上，呈现了他们一贯轻快讨喜且巧妙融汇多方素材的无国界音乐主张。首支单曲"Ob La Di Ob La Da"是翻唱自The Beatles的经典旧作，"Tell Me Lies"、"I Go Crazy"、"Summer Love"是绝佳的传情歌曲，"Talk About"、"Sweet Jamica"诉说了他们对家乡的响往与对雷鬼音乐的热爱，"Speak My Language"、"Black & White"表达了天下一家的观点，而辑末的"Mother Theresa"则是铺陈以优美弦乐、为颂赞已故的德蕾莎修女所作的动人抒情曲，并由葛莱美奖得主亦是歌手/吉他手的Jose Feliciano跨刀主唱，乐迷们在缅怀圣人之余，也可藉此一窥Inner Cirle诠释慢版歌曲时的不同风貌。by Steve HueyInner Circle is, of course, best known for Bad Boys, a ubiquitous crossover hit thanks to its use as the theme song for the long-running Fox TV reality series Cops. But the band had a lengthy history prior to its international breakthrough, dating all the way back to the late 60s. They hit the big time in Jamaica during the 70s as a danceable yet rootsy Rastafarian reggae outfit, fronted by the charismatic singer Jacob Miller. Millers tragic death in a car accident in 1980 put the group on hiatus for several years, and when they finally regrouped in the mid-80s, they began to temper their rootsiness with elements of pop, R&B, and dancehall. Originally recorded in 1987, Bad Boys became a worldwide smash in the early 90s, and the group soldiered on into the new millennium amid several personnel changes.Inner Circle was originally formed by brothers Ian (bass) and Roger Lewis (guitar) in 1968. The groups other charter members were guitarist Steven Cat Coore, keyboardist Michael Ibo Cooper, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Daley. Initially, they made their living playing in hotel lounges. When the rest of the band split to form Third World in 1973, the Lewis brothers assembled a new lineup that included keyboardists Bernard Touter Harvey and Charles Farquharson (the latter of whom didnt stick around for long), and drummer Rasheed McKenzie. Inner Circle recorded a couple of albums for Trojan over 1974-1975, Rock the Boat and Blame It on the Sun, which relied to some degree on smooth American soul covers. They also had a small hit single with I See You.Inner Circles musical outlook changed with the arrival of vocalist Jacob Miller in 1976. Miller, a devout Rastafarian and a successful solo artist in his own right, made the band into a more spiritual, socially conscious outfit, and they quickly signed with Capitol Records. Over the next few years, Miller penned hits like Tenement Yard, Forward Jah Jah Children, Tired Fe Lick Weed in a Bush, and All Night Till Daylight (some of which were credited to Miller, but nonetheless featured the whole band). Capitol issued two LPs, 1976s Reggae Thing and 1977s Ready for the World; sometime during this period, the group also recorded a bit with disco stars KC & the Sunshine Band.At the peak of their early popularity in Jamaica, Inner Circle performed at the legendary One Love Peace Concert in 1978, along with Bob Marley and many others. Heartland Reggae, the film documentary of the concert, helped introduce them to international audiences, and landed them a new deal with Island Records. Their 1979 label debut, Everything Is Great, was a hit in Europe, and the disco-tinged title track made the U.K. Top 20 and the French Top Ten. Several more singles, including Stop Breaking My Heart, Mary, Mary, and Music Machine, helped consolidate their success. Tragically, just as the band was poised for a major international breakthrough, Miller was killed in a car accident on March 23, 1980. Devastated, the rest of the band broke up. Ian Lewis and Harvey moved to Miami and opened a recording studio, and Roger Lewis joined them several years later.Rogers arrival in Miami sparked a renewal of the old Inner Circle chemistry, and soon the band decided to re-form, recruiting new lead singer Carlton Coffie and drummer Lancelot Hall. They recorded the comeback album Black Roses for Ras in 1986, updating their old roots style with elements of contemporary dance music, R&B, pop, and the emerging dancehall sound. The follow-up, 1987s One Way, was a generally acclaimed effort that followed much the same blueprint, and contained the original recording of Bad Boys. The group mounted a successful tour in support, but took several years to come up with another album, finally returning in 1991 with Identified. Meanwhile, the Fox television network chose Bad Boys as the opening theme song for its police reality show Cops, which premiered in March 1989. As the program swelled into a hit, Bad Boys became a household pop-culture reference. Cops was syndicated throughout the world, including Sweden, where Bad Boys was released as a single in 1991 and topped the charts. From there, it became a hit in several other European countries as well. Bad Boys was finally issued in the U.S. in 1993, and vaulted into the pop Top Ten. An album of the same name was quickly cobbled together from existing material; most of it was from the groups 1992 party-reggae album Bad to the Bone, which supplied the sexy follow-up single, the Top 20 hit Sweat (A La La La La Long). Bad Boys won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album, and its title song eventually sold over seven million copies worldwide.Inner Circle quickly recorded a follow-up album, the pop-oriented Reggae Dancer, which was released in 1994. Its lead single, Summer Jammin, was featured in the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop III, but the enterprise failed to sustain Inner Circles momentum as a pop-culture phenomenon. In 1995, Bad Boys was again used as a title song, this time for the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action comedy of the same name. Around that time, however, Coffie was hospitalized with a serious illness, and was forced to take leave from the band. When he recovered, he decided to start a solo career, and was officially replaced by his substitute, singer/toaster Kris Bentley. Bentley made his debut on the 1997 set Da Bomb, which was issued in America one year later in a slightly reconfigured version titled Speak My Language. The band mounted extensive world tours over the next few years, and continued to release new albums, including 2000s Big Tings.