It was 11th of August 1999 when a total eclipse occurred over the UK, and The Agitators were booked to play at The Eclipse festival in Plymouth, Devon. It was a fabulous festival held in a beautiful spot, although it was rather poorly attended. The Agitators at this time was formed from the remnants of the failed Bud Alzir project and consisted of Carlton Brodin on guitar and vocals, Richard Doswell on Tenor Sax, with Marcus playing bass, a drummer he'd recruited named Spider Johnson, and Eddie Rieband on Trombone.

Also appearing on the same bill at the festival was the Mad Professor.

Marcus went to say hi to Neil the Mad Professor who he hadn't seen for some time, and Neil asked him if he'd like to form a new backing band for Lee Perry. Of course Marcus jumped at the idea, and immediately after the Eclipse Festival, he set about organising and arranging a new set with a track list supplied by Mad Prof.

He was also given a little freedom to add his own input, and he got the band to rehearse a version of Lee's old Ska hit 'Chicken Scratch' - the track that had given him his 'Scratch' nickname.

Of course at this time Lee was not around in the UK to attend any of the rehearsals, and rumours were that his new wife never allowed him to fraternise with any of the musicians, so the rehearsals were left to Marcus to organise as he'd had previous experience and knew roughly what sound Lee Perry wanted. None of the other musicians had even met Lee before, so it was all a new venture for them.

Apparently Lee had some issues with his previous backing group - Mad Professor's Robotics band, and he didn't want to work with them any more - quite a challenge awaited The Agitators.

Their first gig was to be at an outdoor festival in Belgium. The band were flown out and accommodated in a plush hotel before being driven to the festival, where they were led onto the stage to start the set - they still had no contact whatsoever with the Upsetter. They began playing and onto the stage walked Lee Perry, who just started his performance as though it had all been rehearsed and planned in advance.

Lee instantly gravitated towards Marcus who he asked what would be the next tune in the setlist and the show progressed smoothly from that point. When the band started playing Chicken Scratch Lee was toasting "do the Chicken Rock, and don't eat Chicken back." It was an hilarious event that went down better than the band could have imagined.

At the end of the set Lee left the stage, and was driven off by his chauffeur, and that was that.

Back in London Mad Professor had decided that they didn't want the band to be called The Agitators as that sounded too much like The Aggrovators, and they didn't need Eddie on the Trombone. Professor said he wanted to call the group The Robotics again, but Lee didn't like that either.

There was so far no name for the group that was now trimmed down to four members who would be flying out to the Antipodes for a tour of New Zealand and Australia as Lee Perry's backing band.

The Agitators had now scaled the heights of international musical superstardom, only they were not The Agitators any longer - they were only Lee Scratch Perry's backing group. Still the adventure beckoned, and the group were suitably excited at the prospect of touring on the other side of the world - at least most of them were; Marcus laughingly recalls that on the 26 hour flight, Carlton did "nothing but moan" as they flew over the USA.

They eventually landed in Aukland where they were met by their host - the promoter John Pell - and driven to their five star hotel. Their first show was at The Logan Campbell Centre, which was similar to a large community hall, and the gig went down really well. Lee introduced the band as 'The Silicon Squad' and during the show he turned to Marcus on the bass and said "We're gonna see if white man can jump, jump! jump! jump!" - Marcus was in hysterics at this, as he attempted to jump whilst playing the bass, and soon Lee had the entire crowd jumping up and down. This would become a regular feature of their act from there on.

After the show Lee hung out with the band in their dressing room, some weed was produced and they all smoked and laughed in the backstage area. After Lee departed the band were invited out to a night of Aukland entertainment where they enjoyed the atmosphere and friendly hospitality of their Kiwi hosts.

The following day they attended a press conference with a New Zealand TV station. Mirielle was saying things like "don't stand on his shadow" and making strange demands that the group thought very odd.

They flew next down to Wellington for a booking at Wellington Town Hall. Marcus had visited New Zealand a couple of times as a younger man when he was at sea, and he'd enjoyed both cities before, but nothing could have been more different than the flight into 'Windy Wellington' by airplane. The plane rocked like a boat as it descended between the twin mountains that both sheltered Wellington Harbour and created the turbulence that gave it its nickname.

The band were accommodated in the Wellington Hilton Hotel - the best hotel in the city - and treated like royalty for their entire stay.

Whilst walking along the main precinct in the city, Marcus was thrilled as he looked in a record shop window - it was adorned with various Lee Perry and Upsetters album covers, and right in the centre, in pride of place, was his own artwork - the Battle of Armagideon album. On the other side of the planet.

The show was very successful and the band were treated like stars while they were in Wellington. After their show they were invited to the Blue Note Bar in Boogie Street, where Marcus recalls that they joined in a fabulously free jamming session with some local Maori musicians and enjoyed a superb night of Kiwi culture and entertainment,

The next day it was back on the plane, off to Melbourne where they were booked for a two night stint at the Corner Bar - a famous Melbourne venue. This bar reminded Marcus of an old London pub, and the gigs were met with the expected Aussie fervour.

By this time Lee had evolved the name of the band from the Silicon Squad into introducing them as 'The Killicon Squad' and the good vibes continued in a suitable way. The gigs were well received and everyone had a fabulous time.

The next flight took them to Sydney where they played a fabulous show at the Sydney Metro.

Lee was unhappy with Spider's performance as drummer however, and he constantly complained to Marcus about his inconsistency, so when the band returned to London, Marcus replaced Spider in the lineup with a long standing friend and superb drummer - Bullit Hardway.

The next leg of the tour was to be a gruelling schedule of 21 dates in Europe, taking in France, Holland, and Sweden. Bullit was now the drummer, but Spider had managed to get back on the crew taking the position of keyboard player, now replacing Richie who had previously held that role.

The band were now established as being called 'The Killacon Squad' and they thoroughly enjoyed playing in the various venues all around Europe. At one venue their support act was The Gladiators - Marcus was gobsmacked, as he was a Gladiators fan for years and them being the support band was just too much.

Marcus remembers the tour as being badly organised by the promoters, with the group spending eight hours every day on the road travelling up and down France - rather than being sensibly organised to play in towns and cities that were in a circuit where it might only be a two or three hour drive between venues, the promoters had booked the shows in a seemingly random order, one day the band would play in Stockholm, the next day in Marseille for example, then back up to Paris - long and arduous travel times between gigs spent looking out of car windows at passing motorways, rather than relaxing on beaches or sightseeing in new locations.

Lee continued to rely on Marcus to tell him the next tunes in the set, and he would instruct Marcus to light the candles and to take his suitcase onto the stage at every show. He would regularly join the band in the dressing room after shows to socialise, smoke weed and drink wine with them.

This familiarity was not going down too well with Mirielle - who was also Lee's manager - and after the tour concluded Marcus was informed by Mad Professor that he was no longer required in the band.

Too much association with the star had led to Marcus being sidelined from the group.

Marcus was rather upset by this turn of events.

He vowed to take a year out from performing and have a complete break from music to plan his future.

It was late in 1999 and there was a new millennium on the horizon.