Mick Farren
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Michael 'Mick' Farren (3 September 1943 - 27 July 2013) was a UK Underground/counterculture radical and anarchist.
He was lead singer with the Deviants. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, as well as developing a prolific career as a sci-fi/horror author, cultural journalist, and critic. In addition to non-fiction, Farren has also written a number of biographical and autobiographical books. At the NME he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.To date he has written 23 novels (including the Victor Renquist novels and the classic DNA Cowboys sequence), 11 works of non-fiction (including four on Elvis Presley) and a plethora of poetry. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 America which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution. He has released at least fifteen musical albums.
Farren organised the legendary Phun City Festival in 1970. He has long been associated with the Hells Angels - UK who provided security at Phun City. They even awarded Farren an 'approval patch' also in 1970 for use on his first solo album the strange and bizarre Mona which also featured Steve Peregrin Took (who was credited as Shagrat the Vagrant). His second solo album was Vampires Stole My Lunch Money. It features Dr. Feelgood's guitarist Wilko Johnson and Chrissie Hynde. His most recent releases are Dr Crow with the Deviants (2002), People Call You Crazy: The Story of Mick Farren (2003), and To The Masterlock (Live In Japan) (2005). Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
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