the tragic death of their lead singer Jacob Miller in a 1980 car accident in Kingston.

The 25-year-old group, devastated by Miller's death, went into semi-retirement from the music scene, limiting their activity to helping produce records for Frankie Paul and other reggae stars.

But in 1987, Lancelot Hall joined the band and "the vibe was right''. They cut another album, One Way, which originally contained the mega-hit Bad Boys.

However, a lack of exposure and marketing of the album saw it fizzle on the international scene.

But the band did not give up.

A US television network snapped up Bad Boys as the theme for the hit show COPS and it soon became a number-one hit, topping the charts the world over.

Inner Circle cut another album, Bad to the Bone (called Bad Boys in America), which contained the hit as well as Make You Sweat, which surpassed Bad Boys in sales.

The band finally bounced back, becoming the world's biggest-selling reggae band.

The group of Jamaicans flew into Bermuda on Tuesday for a concert last night at Number One Shed.

Lancelot Hall and the other five band members, Ian and Roger Lewis, Touter Harvey, Carlton Coffee and Michael Sterling, spoke to The Royal Gazette at their hotel after arriving on the Island.

Hall believed a new Inner Circle had emerged after Miller's death. He said Miller was the band's driving force, but they had left the days of Tenement Yard and Smoking Smoking far behind, he said.

However, original band member, key board player Touter Harvey differed. "We are the same team and we do the same music,'' he insisted. "Perhaps we have grown and may be wiser, but we are the same Inner Circle.'' The hits which shot them to fame on the international music scene were both the ideas of original band member Ian Lewis and had simple origins, says Hall.

"We were in a Miami club one night and everybody was on the dance floor,'' Hall said. "It was so packed everyone was sweating and Ian Lewis saw this girl across the dance floor and he just wanted to dance with her 'til he made her sweat. Everything else just fell in place.'' As for Bad Boys, Hall said it had nothing to do with the Police, instead the question was "what you gonna do when life comes for you''.

It came about from the Lewis brothers watching how a teenaged boy they knew acted around his parents.

Bermuda is the band's second stop on a major US tour which started in North Carolina this week.

Before that, they were in South America, the Far East, Europe and took part in superstar Peter Gabriel's acclaimed WOMAD tour, where the show of fans was "overwhelming'', Hall said.

The biggest audience they played to was 500,000-strong in Holland. "We live on the road,'' Hall said. "We've been touring one and a half years now. But it's what we've always wanted -- to perform and entertain. We've seen the audiences increase but we haven't seen all the glory of getting bigger. We are not on the outside looking in.'' Hall added that he and the other members of Inner Circle were definitely taking time out from touring to go home to Jamaica for Christmas for a "big reunion'' with family and friends.

And in the New Year, it will be back to work on a new album to be released in mid-1994, he said.

Current sales of the Bad Boys album have exceeded four million.

BAD BOYS -- Members of the top reggae group Inner Circle pose outside Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort shortly after arriving in Bermuda for their concert on Wednesday.