Mick Farren x The Deviants

If somehow all of the people that Mick Farren performed with over time were congregated into one room, the resultant group would constitute the most incredible of ‘60s Brit Psych players…ever. There’s no doubt that the folks who came into contact with Farren went on to incredible things – Hawkwind being one of them. But even if that weren’t the case, the musical out put (and yes that’s disregarding the slew of writing that Farren’s done) of just this one man drastically affected the way in which Brit Psych worked and what it did. That’s not even hyperbole.

Hailing from the same town that would give the world Twink (eventually Hawkwind’s drummer), Farren lived on a commune called Ladbroke Grove, which has a musical lineage all its own and gets mentioned in a variety of songs. Anyway, putting together a loose knit group of folks living in and around the commune, Farren arrived at the name the Social Deviants. After the departure of a few members, though, the moniker was shorted to simply the Deviants. The band isn’t really as well recalled today as folks like the Pretty Things, but the Deviants were as much of a muscular rock outfit with just a bit less of a blues influence – that doesn’t include Bo Diddley, though.

In fact, it could be argued that the group’s first full length, Ptoff!, had very little to do with what was going on in music at the time of its release in ’67. Sgt. Pepper was only a year old and Pink Floyd had just released The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But the Deviants made more use of non-rock sounds in their music than perhaps either of those aforementioned ensembles. “Bun” almost comes off as some approximation of what classical composers would do if given nothing to working with apart from two electric guitars. But even beyond that, as “Bun” fades out and “Nothing Man” jumps to a head a timpani thuds an introduction to a percussive rave up that’s only eventually interrupted by Farren speaking atop the din of sound to discuss what a nothing man is. Heady stuff.

Of course, it would have been almost completely impossible for the Deviants to totally escape bluesy rock numbers and on “Charlie” the band stings a little as that lead guitar scratches out some pretend Jimmy Reed guitar solos. This is what the Stones might have sounded like if they hadn’t become some uppity rock stars. If only.

This first release from the Deviants might be the favorite of some – and it’s certainly the weirdest - but just the following year, Disposable would be released. It pointed towards a more traditional sound while still maintaining the dash of the surreal that Farren had become so accustomed to. With only one disc following the ’68 release, the Deviants seemed to be finished before they’d really gotten it all together. Hitting the west coast of the States probably didn’t help too much. And eventually Farren would leave the band only to reconvene in a new musical setting with a few of the guys in the Pink Fairies.