Spike was the talented young bassist and singer in Dub factory, and Tarlok was the guitarist of Indian descent, along with Peng, a young drummer of Jamaican parentage. This group suited Marcus's ideas perfectly at the time - it felt like a far more inclusive vibe than had been the case in Studio Six and along with Zebby on percussion and Russ on the keys, the musicians gelled together instantly as a tight unit.

Marcus had arranged for rehearsals in his friend Sylvia's garage, and the band soon had a workable set of songs with Spike and Marcus sharing vocal duties and Tarlok providing harmonies and some beautiful guitar licks.

Meanwhile Lee Perry had continued his friendship with Marcus, and would often enjoy taking time out in the country and would occasionally stay in the spare room - Marcus's art room - which Lee claimed as his 'Ark Room' adorning the walls with his artwork and graffiti. Marcus delighted in taking Lee out for long walks in the surrounding countryside and to the nearby Pegsdon and Barton Hills, where Lee would climb the trees and scrawl his cryptic graffiti messages in the bark - 'Abaja', 'XIX,' 'God Rain' etc.

Lee and Marcus both loved the countryside, and they would talk about life, nature, and writing song ideas together on their strolls.

When Marcus brought Lee along to rehearsals in Sylvia's garage, he was instantly hooked. He immediately claimed some of the rhythms that the group were working on as his own; one of them he began singing "Introducing Myself, Lee Scratch Perry" and another he started chanting the slack lyrics "I am a 'cuntist' born from a pum pum." The band were all suitably amused by these zany antics.

After a few rehearsals Lee announced that he was going to take the band into the studio to record a 'dub album.' The band were very excited by this prospect, and it wasn't too long before they were travelling to South East London, and Thameside studios, right on the River Thames in Rotherhithe.

To avoid time and money costs in travelling back and forth to the studio, the band took sleeping bags and prepared for a long session. Jerry Tilley was the engineer; he was a bit surprised, but very accommodating to help these six enthusiastic young musicians out.

The first tracks that were laid at the first session were three of the groups original numbers to get them warmed up; Marcus sang 'Rainbow Warrior' - a song he'd written following the scuttling of the Greenpeace ship of that name; Spike sang 'Serious,' - a song he'd written about the current affairs of the day, and they recorded 'Stand Up For Your Rights' - an original interpretation based around the Abyssinians song of that title in homage.

The next tracks Lee recorded vocals on. Amongst several they recorded were 'The Cuntist' and 'Introducing Myself' - songs that the band had rehearsed in the garage. It was on the latter track that Lee started having problems with young Peng the drummer, who couldn't grasp Lee's instructions and started to sulk; refusing to play.

Lee simply dismissed him and used a Roland drum machine instead. It was also the drum machine that he used to record 'Maybe we Can Try Again' a song that he and Marcus had written together in Marcus's 'Ark Room' - to his original lyrical idea he added the chorus "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year" and said "this will be a hit for Christmas."

later in the session, Patrick Meads - then A&R man at Trojan records - brought in a young singer named Sandra Robinson to add harmonies to the track, and by the end of November 1985 the band's first single hit the shops along with an insert card that Marcus had drawn of Lee Perry as Santa Clause.

Most of the rhythm tracks were recorded over three days in '85, but it would be quite some time before the album would be finished.

Marcus and sometimes Spike would be invited to attend overdub sessions where some new tracks emerged - tracks like Time Marches On which began with Lee programming a drum track, and humming a bass line to Spike, and getting Marcus to play a "cricket...cricket" rhythm pattern. Marcus then added clock sound effects on the synth, and Lee played around with vocal ideas. The track they laid that day was reworked several times by Lee, and ended up on the album as something quite different.

Marcus recalls that on the way to that session Lee instructed the driver to call into a petrol station saying "I need some gas" filling up a gallon petrol container which he brought into the studio. He was taking petrol and rubbing it up his arms and in his hair like coconut oil. The fumes filled the studio whilst he was experimenting with vocal ideas, and the three guys - Jerry the engineer, Spike and Marcus were becoming drowsy with the fumes and thinking the studio would explode at any minute!

Lee was drinking rum and blackcurrant juice, and when the rum bottle finished he poured petrol into his cup, added blackcurrant juice and started drinking it. He stood at the mic, held his arms aloft and proclaimed "if anyone try to do what I do - they die!" - the three in the control room, jaws agape, just nodded.

As well as staying in the 'Ark Room' Scratch would also invite Marcus around to Sandra's house in Queensbury, where they would drink Thunderbird or Stone's Ginger wine and smoke spliffs.

Scratch would instruct Marcus to draw him cartoon pictures, and Lee would be climbing up on chairs and scrawling graffiti on the walls, one evening Lee was writing 'I am a madman' repeatedly on the wall when he turned to Marcus and said "where can I use that lyric in one of the tracks?" Marcus said "why don't you change the lyrics to 'The Cuntist' and call it 'The Madman' instead? That would be far more acceptable as a record title" so Lee began singing 'I Am A Madman' - the following day he was back in the studio and the track was completed. He still kept elements of his lewd original lyrics intact, but they were sufficiently hidden in amongst the madness to be indecipherable to the uninitiated.

There were lots of sessions over several months at the studio, but all this working away from home was having a negative effect on Marcus's home life, and would eventually be a contributing factor in the demise of his marriage and the loss of his home. Marcus was forced into 'sofa surfing' with friends and went through a period of emotional hardship.

On top of this personal tragedy, the band also lost faith in the project - Peng had left the group, and Spike decided to sell his bass and take up the Clarinet saying "this album is never gonna be released" - despite Marcus's reassurances that it was an ongoing project. Furthermore Trojan were growing impatient with Lee's constant experimentation and they pulled the budget and made the decision to call the album finished as it was. Lee wasn't best pleased as he was still experimenting with new ideas, but he accepted the decision and got on with creating - Marcus said "he was always creating, he never stopped."

Marcus was now single and spending more time hanging out with Lee at Sandra's house, where Lee was continuing his madcap artistic experiments, one time bringing an upright Piano into the living room on which he began painting the keys red gold and green and adorning the casing with mirrors and trinkets. The piano evolved over several weeks before being gradually dismantled bit by bit. Each time Marcus visited it was changed, eventually being stripped down to its "skellington" - as Lee called it - until it disappeared completely.

Years later Marcus asked Lee if he'd made any photographs of the progress of creation and destruction of this amazing work of art, but he hadn't. What a shame.

One afternoon Lee walked with Marcus to the local off licence to buy some booze, when he called into the garage where he bought a gallon container and filled it with petrol. Back at the house Lee poured the petrol all round the perimeter of Sandra's back yard and set light to it. Six foot flames surrounded the garden as Lee stood silhouetted in the doorway, arms held aloft shouting "Jah! Rastafari!" as Marcus looked on in awe.

Such was everyday life with the Upsetter.

Marcus said "it was only Lee and myself in the house to witness this crazy event, and I didn't have a camera in those days to record this stuff. It's just the way Lee carried on."

Lee then asked Marcus to design the sleeve artwork for the album cover and he jumped at the opportunity. Lee said "I want a ghost smoking a giant spliff sitting on a bible throne wearing a rainbow crown" and Marcus absorbed this idea in his creative mind.

When he returned home he began work on the project. At the time he was staying at a friend called Phil Farelli's flat who was away serving a sentence. There was no electricity in the flat so Marcus worked on the project in the daytime or by candlelight.

He had a collection of old Sunday supplement magazines, and from these he cut and pasted an apocalyptic collage - imagery from the San Fransisco earthquake formed the backdrop, burning skulls from the Killing Fields of Cambodia formed the smoke from the spliff, a picture of Maggie Thatcher waving a flag was superimposed over a picture of troops marching into battle. A starving African child had the Queen with her Corgi eating the food from his tray of grain. Marcus drew Lee's ghost on a bible throne by hand to finish the composition.

When he took the artwork to show him, Lee said "This is an Upsetters artwork, we'll call the band The Upsetters!"

Marcus was overjoyed - an ambition from his teenage years had been fulfilled - his dream had come true. He was an Upsetter.

When Marcus took the artwork to Patrick Meads at Trojan, the secretary exclaimed "Oh my giddy aunt!" to which Marcus replied "no, Armagideon" to much laughter.

The album was eventually released in June 1986 - six months after the initial recording had finished. The trouble now was that Marcus no longer had a band to promote it. He was forced to call on some of his former band mates from Studio Six to try to cobble a new outfit together - a group that he now called 'The Agitators' - featuring Louie and his brother Mick on bass and drums, and including Tarlok and Russ from The Upsetters along with Dave Evans - a saxophone player that Louie had recruited - and with Spike now playing percussion - on a beer bottle!

Marcus organised a gig at Gaz's Rockin' Blues in Dean Street in Soho, which was billed as Lee Scratch Perry and The Upsetters. Lee appreciated that Marcus had put so much work into trying to form a new band, but he wasn't at all impressed with the line up.

After the show, Marcus said his goodbyes to Gaz the promoter and when he and his girlfriend left the club he found that the band had driven off leaving them stranded in Soho at 4am with no means of getting home.

Marcus vowed that he would never work with those people again. It was a sad end to a great musical adventure.