Thanksgiving Rock & Reggae Fest
Featuring Inner Circle and New School Dropouts
- November 17, 2006
- 0 Comments
- By Story By Jeff Nall
If you’ve been waiting for a really good reggae show to come to town, wait no longer. On Wednesday November 22nd, world-famous reggae artists Inner Circle will hit the stage at Captain Hirams in Sebastian followed by a performance along with several artists Saturday November 25 at the Cocoa Beach Pier.
If the name Inner Circle doesn’t ring a bell, these words will: “bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you.”
In the nineties Inner Circle became known around the world as the ‘bad boys’ of reggae as its song “Bad Boys” climbed the charts around the world and became the theme song for Fox‘s TV show, “Cops.” The band also scored a hit in, "Sweat (A La La La La Long)." The band went on to win a Grammy for Best Reggae Album for the release, also titled “Bad Boys.”
While many in America may think of the band as a flash-in-the-pan artist, Inner Circle has been a mainstay in the world reggae community for more than two decades dating back to the 70s.
Comprised of Jamaican natives Ian Lewis (bass) Roger Lewis (guitar), Lancelot Hall (drums and percussion), Touter Harvey (keyboards), and Kris Bentley (vocals), the group has released 15 different albums and literally traveled the world over (Brazil, Guam, India, Beirut, to name a few), sharing the stage with legends like Elton John, Peter Gabriel, and Van Morrison.
Fresh out of the studio with a brand new album slated for release in the new year, Inner Circle’s Lancelot Hall recently took time out to speak to Surf Guru took about the group‘s career and the new album.
Speaking via phone from his hotel room in Hawaii, Lancelot talks about how Inner Circle’s world travels have influenced the band’s perspective on life and influenced the new album.
Music Guru (MG): How long have you been with the band?
Lancelot Hall: 21 years.
MG: Talk about the forthcoming album, “State of the World.” Does the title speak to the musical content of the album?
Hall: It is basically what it states. It’s what we’ve observed in our travels. Basically, we’ve found ourselves in a situation where everybody can tell that the world is changing, in some senses in a positive direction, and others in the negative. We don’t really try to tell anybody what we believe, we just go and put it in the music. If they like it they like it. We hope they get the musical aspect of it first. It’s not really our opinion as more an observation.
MG: When your band says it’s going to perform around the world it really does. Can you talk about recent experiences touring the world over?
Hall: The one that we’ve observed lately is everybody, the whole world seems to be in turmoil. So you have to ask, what are we really striving for, what are we teaching the children? That it’s OK to fight just because somebody says that is the reason with no evidence? What it is your fighting for? I cant say that’s exactly in any of the songs, but that’s the observation that we’ve all observed. Henceforth, the title “State of the World.” There are songs like “Living in a Serious Time” which does relate to what I’m saying. “Serious Time” is one of the songs that’s in the show right now. It’s pretty much just saying that, you as a human being, really an earthling since really you cant pin point it down, everything happening effects us; We should observe that we’re living in a serious time. And the next step we make is going to be an important one. So we should be making it in the right direction.
MG: Should fans be prepared for a more weighty album in “State of the World” compared to previous releases like “Kool Operator”?
Hall: It’s a double CD so there is some parts that might be a little heavy in the consciousness department and then there are some that are light, on the love side. It’s a blend. We didn’t want to come pushing things down people ‘s throat. Even though we might be living in serious time, if you look in the right places love still exits.
MG: Tell us about the new single, “Smoke,” featuring Stephen and Damian Marley.
Hall: That song was inspired by a situation that happen when the Marleys were coming from Louisiana. They ran into some trouble with the police, I’m not sure if they knew who they were or not, but they decided they had to search them with no evidence of anything. They just called us and were talking about it. We talked about doing a song and they said OK, we’re coming. They jumped on the track and it was not so much a message as a vibe. The song that the story tells doesn’t even sound like the title. If you look at it from a different perspective, it could even be a love song.
MG: How did the “Bad Boys” song end up on Fox’s “Cops”? Do you guys have any regrets about being a part of that show which often depicts pretty malevolent behavior toward nonviolent suspects?
Hall: The song was written before the producers approached us. The song is about an adolescent, it’s a true to-life story. It was experienced by the group itself. There was a guy in Jamaica who thought he knew everything. Henceforth he behaved the way he did. ‘You chuck it on your mother, you chuck it on your father‘--you see, in Jamaica the word ’chuck’ means push around--‘you chuck it on your sister. Watcha gonna do,’ when life come for you? Talking about responsibility of life, what you gonna do. It so happens that this kid was killed, that is where that song came from. It was not inspired by the TV show. A friend from Miami called us up and said the producers wanted a reggae song. First they asked us to write a song called, “Cops.” We said, sorry we’re not interested we‘re working on our own album. We were on tour in Europe for months before we even saw any of it. And we’re not going to sit here and complain because as far as our career goes, its done well for us. But a lot of people get the wrong impression about the song.”
MG: I take it you all aren’t particularly fans of the show.
Hall: Let’s put it this way, if I’ve seen the show five times that’s a lot.
MG: How has the group managed to stick around for so long?
Hall: There’s only one world that comes to mind; only thing you can really think of is, family. Just like any family we fight but our fights are usually about music. Never anything personal. We have a level of respect for each other. There’s not a lot of knocking heads because we basically have the same concept of where we want to go (with our music). Even with our crew, there’s a certain mindset that it takes for even our crew to be employed by us. We try to keep it as a family. Not like a boss and employee relationship. If somebody’s working with us we bring them into the circle.