UB40 45th Anniversary Tour
– UB45 –

British reggae star Maxi Priest rose up through the late ’80s and ’90s to become one of the most internationally popular reggae singers since Bob Marley. His lovers rock vocal chops and flirtations with pop and R&B styles scored him multiple worldwide hits, including the trans-Atlantic chart-topper “Close to You,” and a sunny cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.” Priest’s silky-smooth voice was ideally suited for light, romantic material that fused reggae backbeats with R&B’s romanticism, and his most popular work was as sensual as it was soulful. 

Inner 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.

Much like UB40, American reggae band Big Mountain brought a very commercialized version of Jamaican music to the American mainstream when their cover of Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way” reached the Top Ten in early 1994. To the band’s credit, though, its three albums contain reggae roots music combined with only several R&B-ish covers, and the lineup includes two Jamaicans with excellent credentials: rhythm guitarist Tony Chin and drummer Santa Davis — both of whom played with Peter Tosh‘s band and the Soul Syndicate.

Celebrating 47 years, ‘Reggae Ambassadors’, THIRD WORLD is one of the longest-lived Reggae bands of all time, & one of Jamaica’s most consistently popular crossover acts among international audiences. Mixing in elements of R&B, funk, pop, rock, dancehall & rap, Third World’s style has been described as “reggae-fusion”.