The Inter Circle

The visionary behind the Inner Circles was guitarist Boyce Walker Jr., a John Marshall High graduate from West Park. After finding a lead guitar player and vocalist in Eric Lomax, he dragged drummer Kenny Sims and a few other players to the Real Thing at 35th & Chester to cut a demo. The group took a few club residencies but didn’t catch on, falling apart around the same time that Lomax left to record “Seven The Loser” for Columbia in 1969. Andre Nobles, a former bandmate of Lomax’s, joined Walker’s reconfigured group on organ. With two shambolic originals under their belt, the newly christened Inner Circles headed for John Hicks’ Pro Sound studio to make their first record. 1970's “Mirror Mirror” b/w “Bravura” bizarrely coupled a girl group ballad and a dirty, abstract, organ-driven funk workout. But their second effort would be decidedly more focused. Influenced by criminal street culture, each side of their Soul Kitchen 45 was an instrumental “tribute” to drug dealers and pimps, respectively. Noble’s brother Billy joined on bass for the recording of “The Pusher” and “The Players,” providing a hooky punch to the damaged cacophony of Boyce’s porn-whisked guitar, Kenny’s jumbled drumming, and Andre’s screechy organ vamps. Due to a transcription error at the Boddie plant that renamed the quartet “The Inter-Circle,” they never did capitalize on what limited attention the 45 received, and faded away shortly thereafter.