THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
(WELL
THE IMPORTANT BITS ANYWAY...)
In
the beginning was ‘Nam. Ch..Ch..Ch..Cheltenham and lo the valleys
did rumble. The rumbling sound came not from B52’s but from the rickshaw
that carried the infant boy southwards to Worthing where, over the next
few years, his curly locks gradually grew to other-wordly proportions.
Unable to perfect the coveted quiff of Elvis
whose lank greasy locks were the antithesis of our subjects almost negroid
coiffure the young Mick Farren - for it is he of whom I speak - opted
instead for a, then “ahead of it’s time” (pardon the pun),
Afro, and it is not impossible that it was this living sculpture as much
as any inherent drawing ability that gained him entrance to the hallowed
halls of St Martins School Of Art.
For Keef it was Chuck, for Dylan it was Woody but for this unusual young man it was one part Dylan one part Gene Vincent and one part Fullers ESB (those of you not from Blighty will have to guess!!!). The early-sixties were not as wonderful in reality as they are retrospectively painted - unless you lived in London and spent your evenings in Eel Pie Island or Soho it was dull dull dull. But Farren DID live in London and lo he DID see Pete T and Jimi H trying to outdo each other in the volume-plus-destruction-as-art stakes and he DID discover that amphetamines and rock music were a good combination, and that yes, the bad guys did have the best clothes and got laid more often. So, with a head full of beat music and beat poetry and a body fortified with speed (partly medicinal in truth, due to a horrible asthma affliction) the young Farren, in common with many others, faced the choice of a life of crime, a life of drudgery or a life of music stardom. Well there was no real contest was there? Naturally crime was the only solution! Unfortunately however a strong moralistic streak plus a fear of incarceration led young Mick to opt instead for stardom thus rendering some sections of the population prematurely deaf and others wishing they were! Of course there are some of us twisted enough to think this was actually a good move but luckily for civilisation we are as disparate as we are dedicated.
In
New York a group of bohemian poets winos and social deviants managed to
convince the legendary ESP records that they were actually possessed of
musical talent. These so called FUGS provided the inspiration and blueprint
for Farren’s early ventures into the murkier side of the devils own
playground the music biz. Initially busking round a few dodgy Irish pub’s
in London - the Artesian Well in Westbourne Grove being a regular haunt
- Farren launched himself on an innocent public backed by a boogie piano
player and a stand up bass in what he now describes as a “greasy
R&B band” called The Mafia. Oiled by Guinness they veered between
Gene Vincent pastiches and Irish Republican rebel songs with youthful
abandon, shyness overcome by booze and the inevitable haileys (what???
HAILEYS!!! Mills? Pills!!! - got it? yep!). Realizing that the pub circuit
was something of a dead end, a move to Princelet Street in Londons’
Whitechapel - rather appropriately the scene of Jack The Ripper’s
exploits some time before - also saw the formation of the first incarnation
of the Social Deviants who to this day (as The Deviants) are the main
ever flexible vehicle for Farren’s “musical” ambitions.
It seems cruel nowadays to put the word musical in inverted commas but
those who witnessed early concerts will surely understand the advisability
of such a move. The Social Deviants were not so much a musical unit -
despite the abilities & ambitions of various members - as an expression
of urban paranoia, anarchy and drug fuelled disgust. They were rancid.
They made the Sex Pistols look like a sunday school choir. They really
could be evil, and to us twisted souls at UHCK they were the greatest!
Farren describes the average Deviants groupie as being an overweight northern
speedfreak slut psycho who was only discernably female after dark and
was positively dangerous to be around. They were not a hippie band, they
appealed to the booze and speed fraternity of industrial wastelands, not
the flower power peace and love bunch from Primrose Hill! And yet they
could be gentle, and are without exception very good people indeed! But
then there ain’t no methedrine around nowadays and everyone is a
lot older and - ahem - wiser.
The
earliest incarnations included several people whose names are lost to
the amnesiac mists of time. By 1967 however a more stable line-up was
in place featuring behind Farren’s vocals a proper guitar player
in rocker Ian ‘Sid’ Bishop - a bass player and sometime guitar
player Cord Rees left during the recording of their first LP - a second
vocalist Duncan Sanderson later became one of their two bass players alongside
main bassist Mac MacDonnal, and drummer Russell Hunter. Original bassist
Canadian Pete Munro had left by this point and Keyboard players later
also came and went (and in true Spinal Tap style two of them, Dennis Hughes
and Tony Ferguson, died - one by suicide one by drowning). One crucial
member was the mysterious Alex Stowell who invented a lighting system
which he ‘played’ onstage like a guitar in time with the music.
Sid Bishop recalls going to an audition at the house in Princelet Street
where the band lived surrounded by cats who pissed and shat all over the
place. Russell Hunter who rented the place confirms that the house itself
was quite famous, a model of it being an exhibit in the Bethnal museum!
Outside the quiet of night would often be disturbed by a gang of car thieves
who spray painted stolen Cortinas through the small hours in the street,
and next door a lady known as Queenie would dispense black bombers from
a tea caddy! Hunter himself was not the original drummer - that particular
lunatic had been a born again evangelist! - but had answered an ad after
parting company with his previous band The Mob, a Dorset combo who later
featured the abominable Greg Lake
and also recorded with the legendary Joe Meek. While stability is a strange
word to associate with the Deviants, Russell Hunter and Duncan ‘Sandy’
Sanderson represent the most stable rhythm section of the entire horrific
story. Sandy recalls that he was originally recruited as a stooge to his
flatmate Farren in the role of second vocalist. Prior to this the young
Sandy had worked briefly with Yoko
Ono and again with Mick and Joy Farren as a doorman/dogsbody at the
famous UFO club in Tottenham Court Road.
The Deviants only became a “serious” proposition (ha!) around the time of their first LP “PTOOF!”. Having spent some months hosting a Soho club called Happening 44 in Gerrard Street (in reality a strip club after hours) the band recruited Sid Bishop and quickly became regulars at the Middle Earth club (but were only allowed to play UFO on one occasion!) Farren & Hunter, turned down by Pye, Decca and other ‘majors’, managed to convince young millionaire Nigel Samuels to part with enough cash (£3,500 is one figure bandied around) to record and press their own LP. By this time the band was slightly more stable than it’s earlier incarnations and the LP itself is rightfully now seen as a classic. It predated the independent punk ethic by ten years being issued originally on their own Underground Impresarios label and distributed mainly through the underground press. The band managed to sell enough copies to impress Decca records (!) into licensing it. They put it out in a standard sleeve instead of the wonderful poster on the original but interestingly this now seems to be the rarer of the two initial issues. Incidentally famed blues label Red Lightning was founded off the back of the PTOOF! release by ex Mod and member of the jewish mafia known as The Firm who handled the business end of things with customary chutzpah and aplomb. It was this connection that helped install the rightfully legendary Essex acid dealer Dave ‘Boss’ Goodman in the band as all round roadie and nurse. Boss - whose flat at the time was so full of liquid LSD one tripped simply by touching the furniture - writes a regular column in UHCK which has proved over the years to be our most consistently popular - and hilarious - feature. Everybody loves Boss.
A brief tour of Holland gave the band their first proper taste of life beyond the dismal UK club circuit outside London and guest John Peel recalls the event with some relish in the sleevenotes to the album to which (Barry) Miles also contributed. The band may have been widely perceived as a joke but their roots were very obviously in the political underground and the emergent psychedelic scene. The presence of such figures as Miles, who ran Indica bookshop and had links to both the Beatles and author/guru William S Burroughs, indicate the fact that despite being an aggressive ‘punk’ band long before their time the Deviants were actually firmly based in an articulate literate scene and were very far from being dumb rock and rollers. Hirsute AND erudite. This became clearer in time as Farren’s involvement in the underground press reached it’s apex with the notorious split in the ranks at IT. As the old guard of liberal lefties were ousted Farren and Co took over, Mick becoming editor for some years. Future album covers were frequently illustrated by ITs resident Brummie the supertalented Edward Barker (who also illustrated UHCK until his tragic death in ‘97) and the Pink Fairies became virtually the IT house band - but I am getting ahead of myself....
While
the hippies were tripping out on LSD and sniffing flowers in Hyde Park
the Deviants - no strangers to psychedelics although Farren himself was
a late convert - tended to favour the brutal stimulant methedrine which
they would acquire in glass ampoules intended for injection and (with
one or two exceptions who went the whole way) would pour the contents
into coke cans and pass them round. In this manner they managed to spike
certain recording engineers and turn the two or three hour recording sessions
they’d paid for into free all night extravaganzas. It was under these
conditions that the second LP, ‘Disposable’ was recorded and
while it is an interesting period piece with some underrated songs the
band as a whole tend to dismiss it as a ‘methedrine monster’.
It does show that they were trying to take themselves more seriously and
behave like a ‘proper’ band but in doing so perhaps loses some
of the anarchic zeal which many felt was their real forte - having said
that it was the first Devies LP I bought and I still love it. The LP also
sired the only single by the original band “You Gotta Hold On/Let’s
Loot The Supermarket”, both records coming out on sometime IT record
reviewer Simon Stable’s Stable records (an Island subsidiary who
incidentally also released the Escalator LP by Lemmy’s early band
Sam Gopal). As the speed took hold however the inevitable paranoia also
began to take it’s toll with opposing factions within the band causing
increasing tension. First casualty was Sid Bishop. Never at home with
the more fervent politicizing of Farren & co Sid was essentially a
rocker - his marriage, which remains solid to this day, had begun to take
precedence in his mind and with an impending baby his wife became less
than enamoured by the frequent sight of her hubby staggering home having
been heavily spiked with speed to keep him at the studio! Although he
stuck it out long enough to take part in the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream
and also a hilarious night at the Royal Festivcal Hall where they provoked
a fight between two halves of the audience - Sandy in a dress years ahead
of Bowie et al - finally Sid handed in his notice and phase one (or two
three four?) was truly over.
Also missing after the LPs release was 2nd bassist Mac so that with the eventual departure of keyboard player, and schoolfriend of Sandy, Tony Ferguson as well (before drowning in Brighton he also gassed himself with nerve gas on the tube and got into hare krishna!) the Deviants now consisted essentially of Mick Farren Russell Hunter and Duncan Sanderson plus friends like long time roadie and wet nurse Dave ‘Boss’ Goodman publicist Steve Sparkes and manager/speed dealer Canadian Jamie Mandelkau. Now living in a flat above the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End, where Hair was performing it’s dubious bollocks, the band faced an uncertain future when Mandelkau made a fateful decision that essentially changed the course of history for all concerned.
Back
home in Vancouver Mandelkau had a buddy by the name of Blackie, actually
one Paul Rudolph, a bass player and guitarist who had learned to play
as therapy for his childhood polio which left him with a crippled arm.
Arriving with two guitars two stripey t-shirts and a pair of corduroy
trousers this large Canadian stepped into the breech and turned the Deviants
into a real force to be reckoned with. In many respects it was actually
too late - the speed and the endless one-nighters, plus the losing battle
to be taken even semi-seriously were all against him, but Rudolph took
over as new guitar player and blew everybody’s minds with increasing
regularity. Although his ‘tits and ass’ humour, stemming perhaps
from an essential shyness, was somewhat at odds with hippie sensibilities
(and he was dreadfully jealous of what he saw as bassist Sandy’s
popularity with the ‘chicks’ despite ‘scoring’ with
Curved Air’s luscious Sonja Kristina who was then appearing in Hair)
his allegiance to the underground, his love of smoking endless joints
and his astoundingly fluid and truly psychedelic guitar playing made him
the perfect foil for Farren’s more extreme politicizing - in short
the Deviants began to become truly musically exciting. No more would audiences
be treated to the sound of Triumph motorcycles being revved up over the
p.a. (nearly killing one clubfull of punters!), instead they would be
taken on trips of fancy on the wings of Pauls Stratocaster or Les Paul
(his hollow body Gibson proving too feedback-prone even for the Devies!).
Not that this new found musical cohesion actually precluded high jinks - far from it! The spirit of the Pranksters, perhaps best embodied by Boss’s collection of Spud Guns and the like, was in clear evidence when the Festival Of Light - a right wing Christian mob of assholes led by Cliff Richard Mary Whitehouse and Malcom Muggeridge (and to think Cliff actually played with Hank Marvin!) - held a mass meeting in Westminster Hall. The late Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame stumped up the cash to hire some nun costumes (I believe they are called - ahem - ‘habits’) which were gleefully donned by Russell and Sandy along with certain friends from IT such as Su ‘still a fox’ Small and buddy Steve Peregrine Took. As the speeches rolled on Russell et al would rise up to start clapping and the audience would follow suit. Of course this delayed things to a ridiculous extent when it happened after every sentence! Suspicion aroused, the band then released a box full of white mice causing mass screaming as sundry god-fearing folk leapt onto their seats to avoid the poor rodents. They then began to exit the hall, Russell leading a ‘conga’ up the central aisle hoisting his habit to reveal his pert wee bottom to the startled mass of god botherers. Naturally we at UHCK find this extremely funny but Russell was actually beaten up by the so called ‘Christian’ bouncers - comments please Cliff?
As 1969 crept up the band signed to a third label - Transatlantic - and entered the studio for the last time to record what is now known as the ‘Nun’ album. Sadly it isn’t Russell or Sandy on the cover but the lolly sucking habit wearing babe with the cheeky kid at her feet is still pretty darned cool a’ lickin’ on her Sky-Ray... It was a strange LP with a rather dry and banal production that did no favours to some pretty decent ideas. After the band evolved into the Pink Fairies several riffs from this LP (especially Billy The Monster) became staples of the improvised sections of the new set. There are glimpses of both the past and the future on this album - the past in the squeaky toy which ends Rudolph’s vocal ‘drum solo’ (Black George Does It With His Mouth’) and which was one of Boss’s beloved bag of tricks, the future in the form of those aforementioned riffs and the humour (and indeed the music) of some tracks which later found expression in songs like ‘Pigs Of Uranus’ by Gil Shelton & The ‘Fairies. However the end was nigh. Farren was suffering from exhaustion; too much speed, too much work and an isolation from the rest of the band who now wanted to advance into a ‘proper’ rock group. Ironically Rudolph, a blessing in so many ways, was at odds both with Farren for his - ahem - ‘singing voice’ and his still rampant politicizing which was seen to be at odds with the musical aspirations, and also to an extent with Sandy whose bass playing, sound as it was, was not to the taste of Paul who was a certified tutor of bass guitar. This proved more problematic later on but even now cracks began to appear.
A fantastic gig in Hyde Park - on the bill with Fleetwood Mac etc - saw the band playing at dusk, Farren out of his mind on an unknown psychedelic (possibly STP) but playing with a ragged glory nobody who knew them would ever have thought possible. A series of Canadian gigs had been set up by Mandelkau and the band looked forward to playing over the Atlantic but when they got to Vancouver - Mandelkau and Rudolph’s home town - they found the promoter had undersold the gigs and there were no return tickets! Starvation and desperation rapidly ensued with Farren in particular at odds with the rest of the band. As he fumed alone (jangling from speed and a horrible acid trip the night before when the audience thought he was actually melting in front of them) the others met up in a launderette and did the unthinkable, they sacked Farren from the Deviants!!!
Mick made his way back to London where he booked into a hospital, de-toxed and then promptly set about re-toxing with re-newed zeal. Next step the ‘Mona- The Carniverous Circus’ LP with Twink and Steve Took. The remaining Deviants left behind in Canada - Rudolph Hunter Sanderson and Goodman - managed to get a few more gigs, buggered off to San Francisco with a carrier bag full of bologna sandwiches and one dollar each, and lived at the Family Dogg commune for a few months playing gigs as a (largely) instrumental Deviants. The rest is history... talking of which....... in Seattle they made a bunch of money, Russell & Boss won tickets to see Little Richard in a lottery, Sandy discovered Nitrous Oxide via Jerry Garcia and Paul and Boss both discovered PCP and brown rice (man). There is more of course but that’s another story...
ANOTHER STORY
Back in London Farren recorded his own solo LP “Mona The Carniverous Circus” having kick started the so called ‘Pink Fairies Motorcycle Club And All Star Rock N Roll Band’ (named after a Jamie Mandelkau story) with Twink and Steve Took while the trio plus one remained in the USA as the Deviants. A few ‘shout-ins’ at the Speakeasy club backed by Little Free Rock and a disastrous gig in Manchester ended with Farren falling out with Twink and Took, after which he concentrated on writing while the remaining Deviants eventually returned in late ‘69 to become (with Twink) - The Pink Fairies! Prior to the USA visit they had all collaborated on Twinks’ Think Pink LP - produced by Farren - which is sometimes thought of as the first PF’s album.
Farrens’ involvement with IT and the comic Nasty Tales (co-produced with Edward Barker) led to the Phun City festival near Worthing. Supposedly a fund-raiser but widely thought of as Farren’s revenge on Worthing to many this was the Pink Fairies (71 model) finest hour as they perforned an explosive set largely in the nude. Only months later Twink had left and the trio who had toured the USA as the Deviants recorded a whole LP (“What A Bunch Of Sweeties”) as the Pink Fairies - the story gets still more complicated! Staying with the Deviants for now we leap several years ahead to an era when the Pink Fairies have already existed for some time and old animosities have faded. To 1972 in fact when the annual Pink Fairies Christmas party at the Roundhouse featured a special one off Deviants reunion. Not the full ensemble - no Sid Bishop for instance - but enough to make a quorum. Basically Farren et al took the stage to join the PF’s for a few old Devies numbers. This was the occasion when they were joined by one very unlikely figure in the shape of lofty American misfit Kim Fowley who ably assisted Farren and Co with the odd bellow prior to nipping off to Chiswick for a quick duet with a dog! The gig was also notable for the reappearance of famed drug fiend Steve Took who for once was actually capable of performing without falling over and was seen by many as being the star turn! A similar event happened the following year too although in reality this was the PF’;s with Mick guesting (who is to say really? - pretty much the same ensemble of bods would be involved whatever name they called themselves!).
Fast
forward to 1977 and Punk has swept away all before it - with the honourable
exception of our heroes who were the only longhairs deemed acceptable
by the new regime. In fact a certain J
Rotten said they - The Pink Fairies - were his fave UK band (as had
George Harrison some years previously). Stiff records was up and running
- run in part by Jake Riviera who had put out the notorious Glastonbury
Fayre LP as well as a Chilli Willi album on the Revelations label and
succeeded in bridging the pub-rock scene with punk. The second Stiff release
had been a Pink Fairies single (with Martin Stone from Chilli Willi) and
Larry Wallis was firmly installed as house producer. Now writing full
time for the NME Mick Farren had penned a piece entitled “The Titanic
Sails At Dawn” (Dylan quote of course) which many credited with hot-wiring
the punk scene and Stiff decided it was time for the Deviants to reappear.
This time round though it was clear that whoever was the Deviants it had
to be Mick Farren and anyone else who was invited on board. For the first
time on record there was no Russell, no Sandy; there was however one Paul
Rudolph aided and abbetted by Larry Wallis, Andy Colquhoun, drummer Al
Powell and on backing vocals Boss Goodman (reading headlines from the
days paper!). The ep “Screwed Up” was only the 2nd Deviants
7” and ably demonstrated that the older guys still had the keys to
the hottest hot-rod in town - a punk remake of “Let’s Loot The
Supermarket” was a particular highlight. A tour was proposed, although
Rudolph - who shyed away from the chemical excesses of other parties -
was not included (he was now living in Spain, playing Mandolin, riding
his racing bike and recording with Brian Eno amongst others). Sadly the
tour fell through but the record did result in further releases (on the
Logo label) with the same basic line-up minus Blackie as Farren solo excursions.
Was this the end? No! Rudolph relocated to home town Vancouver to run a bicycle shop (often erroneously thought of as a motorbike shop - no way!), Larry Wallis made the occasional solo record and Farren moved to New York where he set up camp with Wayne Kramer, producing the long running off-Broadway stage play The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz.. Apart from the aforementioned brief get-togethers we have to wait until 1984 and a rare UK appearance of old compadre Kramer of the MC5 before we witness another Deviants incarnation. When Kramer was released from jail following a big time cocaine bust Farren & Co had helped fund a restart with a single on the special label "StiffWick/ChisTiff" and later Wallis, Colquhoun etc had backed him on a celebration gig at Dingwalls (now out on CD!). This time Wayne returned the favour and played two nights with Farren/Wallis/Sanderson & George Butler of the Lightning Raiders, again at Dingwalls (a club in Camden Town which at the time was under the able management of one Boss Goodman. Sometime DJ was Duncan Sanderson and bar manager was one Russell Hunter!). Both Boss & Farren had visited Kramer in Detroit and with Farren now a resident of NYC this was something of an old boys reunion all round. Wallis in particular was thrilled to be on stage with Wayne and the second night (the first was a private party set) was recorded for posterity being released on Psycho Records as the "Human Garbage" album under the Deviants moniker. Although looser, the first night had the edge simply because on the second gig everyone (bar Wayne) was so drunk! They still managed to rock like mothefuckers but Wayne stole the show, “machine gunning” the audience with his Gibson as in days of yore.
One year later the Larry Wallis band - who for a year or so played Dingwalls about once a month under a bewildering variety of names, and consisted now of Wallis, Sanderson, Colquhoun & Butler - played a special two set evening, the second set featuring Mick Farren on vocals as The Deviants! Shortly afterwards Andy Colquhoun also left the UK and for a while all went quiet. Then Farren moved west to Los Angeles where he hooked up again with both Andy C and Wayne K. A variety of bands and recordings ensued including a one off Pink Fairies reunion caught on video in LA on new years eve ‘92 (the line up of that evening of Farren/Wallis/Colquhoun/Lancaster/Powell & LA bassist King Dinosaur might just as easily have called itself the Deviants by then!) and in ‘97 a new line up - essentially an extension of two seperate projects - came together and released an Lp called “Eating Jello With A Heated Fork” with Andy C and Wayne K on the guitars, Farren of course on vocals and saxist (not sexist) Jack Lancaster (whom Farren had been working with after being introduced by Larry Wallis, an old musical sparring partner of Jack’s) using the rhythm section from Wayne Kramers trio. Interestingly this appeared on the Alive/Energy label founded by the now paraplegic John Sinclair, one time manager of the MC5 and founder of the White Panthers in the USA - Farren and the IT staff had been instrumental in setting up the UK party and the Pink Fairies were considered the Panther house band. Apart from the Isle Of White Festival of 1970 when Farren et al were extremely active - The PFs playing free outside the gates - the Panthers were not really needed in the UK and by 72 Farren was no longer actively involved (I have a letter from him dated 72 advising me to contact John Cardin at IT for info on the party). The Captain Trips CD label from Tokyo Japan approached UHCK around this time with a view to releasing old Deviants material and while UHCK itself was sadly dormant at that time it did lead to them re-issuing all the past catalogue in CD form and in putting together a number of compilations featuring new and/or unusual material some of which was in fact Farren solo stuff and not strictly the Deviants but it was all very welcome! “Fragments Of Broken Probes” was largely old material with one new number featuring the core trio of Farren, Andy C and new drummer Philthy Animal Taylor ex-Motorhead while ‘99s CD “The Deviants Have Left The Planet” is almost entirely new (and is entirely excellent too!). An earlier CD on Demon collected various stray tracks under the title Partial Recall which became for a while Farrens column title in UHCK but the great thing was that the band had once more become a live entity - Farren and Andy performed at two of the Terrastock festivals using pick-up rhythm sections in Rhode Island and San Francisco and in late 99 the band (minus Philthy who couldnt get a permit) toured Japan with Blue Cheer, a live CD entitled “Barbarian Princes” documents what sounds like a new high in the Deviants long and illustrious (not to say complex) history. Finally UHCK’s most recent release “Hogwatch” features two new Deviants trakcs recorded at the same time as the “Planet” studio tracks and there seems no reason why the Deviants cannot continue for as long as Mick can continue breathing - lay off them fags bro!
