by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – Inner Circle, whose first tour took place 48 years ago, are scheduled to hit the road in mid June for a two-month trek covering the United States and Morocco. The opening show is scheduled for June 14 in Cary, North Carolina alongside former Wailers guitarist Junior Marvin and Third World.
In all, the band will play 18 shows with a handful of dates being on UB40’s Red Red Wine Tour. Those gigs take place July 19, 20 and 21 in Park City, Utah, Fort Hall, Idaho and Tacoma, Washington, respectively.
The Miami-based Grammy winners are also scheduled to perform in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cocoa Beach and St Petersburg, Florida, Ashland and Salem in Oregon, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Primm, Nevada, Rohnert Park and Los Angeles, California and Tucson, Arizona.
Part of the UB40 Tour
The latter show, on August 4, is also part of the UB40 tour. On July 6, Inner Circle are one of the acts on the Nostalgia Reggae Lovers Festival in Marrakech, Morocco.
Inner Circle formed in Kingston in 1968. It retains two original members — brothers Roger (rhythm guitar) and Ian Lewis (bass), as well as keyboardist Bernard “Touter” Harvey who has been in the band for over 50 years. Lead singer Trevor “Skatta” Bonnick, drummer Lancelot Hall, keyboardist Charles Farqhuarson and lead guitarist Benji Baez are also members.
At the time of their first tour, which took place in the US in 1977, Inner Circle was signed to Capitol Records and Jacob Miller was its lead singer. He died in an auto accident in March 1980 at age 27.
After relocating to South Florida in the early 1980s, Inner Circle found a second wind. They scored two massive hit songs early in the next decade with Bad Boys and Sweat which helped earn them a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1994 with Bad Boys.
