UFX

In 1977, Vi Brator (Stephen Rosser) and Duncan Disorderly (Jowitt) formed short-lived punk rock band Urban Void. Following the band's demise, Jowitt was invited to replace Phil Denton as guitarist in Section 25 just as the band were beginning to make their first live appearances. After they parted company in October 1978, Jowitt formed his own band Final Solution as vocalist/guitarist with David Foster on bass. Final Solution opened the show at the 1979 Blackpool charity concert organised by Section 25, which featured Joy Division and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and ultimately led to Section 25 being signed to Manchester's influential Factory record label. By 1980, after a series of line-up changes, the band had changed its original inflammatory name to Another Dimension and had settled around a core personnel of Jowitt and Foster with Steve Grice on drums.

In 1982, with the addition of John "Sid" Hayward on synthesisers and Bill Fogel on guitar, the band became Zoo Boutique, after the New York boutique called Zoo that was opened by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits and Graham Gouldman (later of 10cc in 1969.[1] The name was misspelt as Zoo Bootique on their first release "Love Like a Clown", which was included on the compilation EP "A Drop in the Ocean" on Lightbeat Records.[2] With Fogel replaced by a second keyboard-player in Phil Denton of The Tins, who had released the DIY album "Buying In Bulk" to positive reviews in 1981, Zoo Boutique's sound became increasingly electronic rock and their debut single "Forgive and Forget"/"Happy Families"[3][4][5][6] (also on Lightbeat Records) received national UK prime-time airplay on BBC Radio 1 but failed to chart. This proved to be the height of Zoo Boutique's commercial success and without a record deal, the band persisted through further line-up changes before Jowitt finally folded the band in 1985 to form Gothic Rock/rockabilly band (Snakeman And The) Headhunters, with Mark Channing on bass, Paul Jepson on guitar and Hayward reverting to drums. In 2014, Zoo Boutique's singles and a number of previously unreleased recordings were compiled by Thundersqueak and released as the "Forgotten" album along with an album "Two Sane Men", which was recorded in 1985 and shelved for almost 30 years.

When Hayward left in 1988, Jowitt joined Pete Graham (guitar), Peter Terras (bass) and Alex Darbyshire (drums) to form Fleetwood's Shining Sons, adopting the stagename "Morax". Shining Sons split in 1992, having released only one six-track cassette "Limited Edition" in 1989, which was expanded and released as a self-titled album in 2014. Jowitt joined Blackpool punk band Pink Torpedoes in 1993, leaving in 1995 following a concert at the British Snowboarding Championships in the French Alps. Since 1994 he has released occasional solo material under the name Lucifer and Lewis "Cypher", many in limited editions deliberately designed to be unplayable without access to certain now-obsolete playback devices. These include a series of six groundbreaking[7][8] "Cyber Punk Rock" tracker module floppy disk EPs in 1994-95 playable only on Commodore Amiga computers, the first three volumes of which included the first full vocal songs to be released for playback on a computer,[9][10] and an (audio only) single on betamax videocassette. The recordings on the first "Cyber Punk Rock" disk were two full length cover versions of songs by the Ramones: "Beat on the Brat" and "I Don't Care", chosen because of the minimal lyrical variation between the verses. All the Lucifer floppy disk releases were reissued as "Cyber Punk"[11][12][13] album and a double album "Cyber Zone"[11] as Internet-only downloads alongside more recent recordings made under the name Lucifer[14][15]

In 1996, Jowitt's Mockingbone studio project with Shaun Vincent Gair also self-released two limited edition CD albums "Mockingbone" and "A Mix Bag".[16] and the compilation "A Very Mixed Bag Indeed" in 1997. Mockingbone's "musics" were remastered, repackaged and re-released in 2014 as five separate EPs and albums: "Mockingbone", "Trance", "Mentell", "EnTrance" and "Song Cycle".[17]

A fan club member of gothic rock band Alien Sex Fiend, Wilson first met singer Nik Fiend when Lytham St Annes band The Turnpike Cruisers landed a support slot with the band. By 1986 he was drumming for the Turnpikes when they supported Alien Sex Fiend in Hammersmith, London and shortly afterwards Nik Fiend asked him to join the band. Fiend gave Wilson the stage name Rat Fink Jr. when he joined as drummer and guitarist and he subsequently toured and recorded with them until 1992. Rat's time with Alien Sex Fiend along with frank and honest details of his personal life is thoroughly documented in the book "Once Upon a Fiend".[18]

He subsequently returned to Blackpool and played with United States of Mind, a band which also featured future Earthling Society drummer Jon Blacow on percussion. Wilson would spend the rest of the 1990s awaiting a recall from Fiend and sitting in on drums with various bands.

In 1996, Wilson and Jowitt met when both were employed as actors for the first season of Blackpool's interactive horror show Pasaje Del Terror, where Rat played the role of Dracula.

In 1983, 19-year-old bassist Chad Spandosa formed Skreem with drummer Kim Sweeney, British marathon drumming champion (59 hours 30 minutes & 32 seconds) from 2004 to 2008. Spandosa then joined Johnny Thunders/Ron Asheton/Stooges-inspired guitarist Johnny Volume and Iggy Pop-obsessed singer "The Blay" (Colin Blaylock) in Blackpool’s Dog Food who, with a succession of different drummers, were a permanent fixture on the Blackpool music scene throughout the rest of the 1980s and most of the 1990s including touring with Dunk Rock's Headhunters in 1986. Dog Food were joined by Rat Fink on drums shortly before the band split permanently in 1998.

• 2000 – Uncle Fester - Frump Experiments
• 2002 – Uncle Fester - Total Sonic Mayhem
• 2004 – Uncle Fester - Offensive
• 2006 – UFX - Crack
• 2009 – UFX - Sick Sick Sex
• 2013 – UFX - Reverse Engineering (Exits Exist)

• The Ugly Truth About Blackpool Volume 1, 2005[28][29]
• Conform Or Die, 2005[30]
• The Ugly Truth About Blackpool Volume 2, 2006[31]

*Misery of Sound, 2007[32]

• 2010 - Puppetmaster - My Name is Death (EP)[33]
• 2012 - Boneyard Zombies - Death Rattle and Roll[34]
• 2012 - Various - Blackout Crypthology (features tracks by both Boneyard Zombies and Vince Ripper and the Rodent Show)[35]
• 2013 - Vince Ripper and the Rodent Show - Live From The Boneyard (DVD)[36]
• 2014 - The Crawlin' Hex - I'm a Living Sickness flexi-disc single on Postcards From the Deep box set[37]
• 2015 - The Crawlin' Hex - Who Do You Love on Strange Fruit and Veg compilation CD[38]
• 2015 - Vince Ripper and the Rodent Show - It’s Fun to Be a Monster (cd)[39]