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MICK FARREN'S WEBLOG -DOC40 - IS NOW ONLINE!  |
Significant happenings, scuttlebutt and other ephemera.
29 November 2012 News of two new books by Mick Farren, Road Movie, a "pulp fiction" novelette has been avaialble in the US on Penny-Ante Editions for a couple of months now, but Elvis Died For His Own Sins Not Mine is due for imminent publication in the UK by Headpress. For more details about both click on the links. | |
29 November 2012 More Deviants live action. "Billed as ‘The New Underground Xmas Party’, the Con Club plays host to a rare gig by one of the cult bands of the 1960s – The Deviants, led by Mick Farren – novelist, NME music journalist and a leading figure in the British Underground with the White Panthers and as one-time editor of International Times. Support is provided by an unusual appearance of John May’s BOHO band + special guests + light show + DJ. Here’s a chance to dust off your 60’s wardrobe and party like its 1969." | |
09 May 2012 The Deviants are headlining The Robin 2 in Bilston on Wednesday 6th June. The following week they are appearing at A Freedom Rally Celebration in Memory of John Lennon, at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire with the Beatnik Youth Orchestra (featuring John Sinclair, Howard Marks, Youth [Killing Joke], Mark Stewart and Alan Clayton), Sonja Kristina's Acid Folk, The Dirty Strangers, Rotten Hill Gang and DJ Paul Chukles. | |
14 April 2012 Mick Farren has a new collection of poems out called Black Dogs Circled published by Sea Urchin and printed in a limited edition. "The 18 poems contain personal observations, phantasies, obsessions, memories and lyrics, composed by Farren with a musical ear and a sense of humour. "Space Opera", "Skin Of White Latex", "Cocktail Napkin", en "The Creature" are some of the titles of the poems that together create a sultry atmosphere. Punk, kinky, subversive, intoxicated: Farren at his best. Design and illustrations by Ben Schot. Limited supply of signed copies available." | |
09 June 2011 Following hot on the heels of a poetry reading at The Prince Albert in Brighton, with guitar accompaniment from Andy Colquhoun and Slim Tim Slide Rundall, Mick Farren and The Last Men Standing AKA an aggregation of Deviants and Pink Fairies plus Tim Rundall and Jaki Windmill play a warm up gig at The Hydrant, Preston Circus, London Road, Brighton. With support from Paradise 9. On Saturday 24th June Mick Farren and The Last Men Standing play the Spirit of '71 stage at Glastonbury Festival. | |
7 October 2010 Mick Farren, Andy Colquhoun and Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor have contributed a brand new track called 'Baby Pink' to a CD released on 12 November by Easy Action Records. It is entitled Portobello Shuffle: A Testimonial To Boss Goodman and Tribute To The Deviants and Pink Fairies. There is also a Dissenters Gallery - Boss Goodman Testimonial gig taking place on the same date. See Portobello Shuffle Myspace and Facebook groups for more details and tickets Portobello Shuffle Facebook Group and Dissenters Gallery - Boss Goodman Testimonial Gig Facebook page. Click here for full size pic of ad featuring artwork by the late, great Edward Barker. | |
04 September 2010 Already published in the USA since July this year, Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine, Mick Farren's cultural and political history of speed is published in the uK by Feral House on 1st October. Available from Amazon.com or pre-order from Amazon.co.uk | |
05 December 2009 Give The Anarchist A Cigarette has now been published in Japan by Garageland Jam Books. Translated by Yukiko Akagawa, the book comes with a fantastic psychedelic cover with artwork (the skeleton) provided by Norio Kojima (guitarist with Tail Soup), and Kaori Toyama. Even if you can't read Japanese, or have already got the English version, it's desirable for the cover alone anyway, and it's bound to become a sought after item in years to come. Available from Amazon Japan. | |
23 September 2009 News of Mick Farren's long awaited collection of poetry and prose can be found at his Doc40 blog - Waddya Know We Gotta New Book! More details and Funtopia review will be coming just as soon as! | |
11 July 2009 Inexplicably and seemingly without warning Freeserve pulled the plug on Funtopia within the last couple of weeks. This is currently the new home for Funtopia which will hopefully also undergo a bit of an overhaul in the next few months. Keep watching this space. | |
19 May 2007 Bit slow with this update! Mick Farren and Andy Colquhoun have recorded a new song based on Mick's written introduction to forthcoming biog Keep It Together! Cosmic Boogie with the Deviants and the Pink Fairies. It is called Ladbroke Groove and the edited version can be found on the Keep It Together! myspace site. The site also includes rare footage of the Pink Fairies at both of their 1975 Roundhouse reunions. | |
| 09 May 2007 Mick Farren has a new book out in the United States called Who's Watching You? Full details can be found on Mick's blog, Doc40, and the book can be ordered via Amazon.com | |
| 10 March 2007 Keep It Together! Cosmic Boogie with the Deviants and the Pink Fairies has been completed and is currently with the publishers Headpress and is due to be published soon. Mick Farren has written the introduction for the book, as well as having made a spoken recording of the introduction with musical accompaniment by fellow Deviant and Pink Fairy Andy Colquhoun for promotional purposes. The book can be pre-ordered through Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk | |
| 23 July 2006 Mick Farren will be writing a foreword/introduction to a forthcoming biography of the Deviants and Pink Fairies entitled Keep It Together: Cosmic Boogie with the Deviants and Pink Fairies due to be published by Headpress in March 2007. Further details can be found on Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk | |
| 1 May 2006 Conflagration, the much anticipated sequel to Mick Farren's highly enjoyable Kindling is due to be published by Tor on May 31st. Pre-publication orders can be made online via Amazon. | |
| 30 April 2006 On March 31st 2005, Boss Goodman, long time friend of Mick Farren, and Deviants and Pink Fairies road manager (see The Boss Goodman Pages), suffered a left-brain stroke and is currently still in hospital. Steve Mann and Richard Adams have set up a website to keep his many well wishers ifnormed of the Boss Man's progress. There is also a "Quids in for Boss" fund which people can contribute to help with costs towards Boss's recovery. | |
| 4 December 2005 Visit Julian Cope's Head Heritage website for a review of Slunky Side's Sadistic Red CD by arsydd. Nabeji the singer and guitarist out of Slunky Side played additional guitar with Marble Sheep as part of Mick's backing band on his last two visits to Japan. | |
| 21 October 2005 Checkout the Funtopia review of Mick Farren's To The Masterlock - Live in Japan 2004. | |
| 15 October 2005 At long last, links from the Events, Occurrences & Happenings page have now been added to Mick's last two Japanese excursions, as well as the Give The Anarchist A Cigarette Gallery. | |
| 10 October 2005 Check out Mick Farren - Tokyo 2005 for Yukiko Akagawa's report of Mick's recent trip to Tokyo where he performed a spoken and musical set at the Tokyo Hipster's Club (THC) on 16 September. Mick was backed by Captain Trip Records' head honcho Ken Matsutani and his band Marble Sheep, as well as Nabeji out of Slunky Side. There are also two photo galleries of the trip, some of the photos were also kindly provided by Yukiko Akagawa. Mick's latest CD - To The Masterlock (Live in Japan 2004) is out now on Captain Trip Records. | |
| 14 September 2005 The Seth Man's excellent FUZ magazine finally has an online home. Seth Man has produced two issues, both are glossy, high-quality fanzines. Issue # 1 is concerned with Davie Allen & The Sparrows, whilst Issue #2 is a 50-page special on Deviants, Pink Fairies, and Hawkwind. The Deviants / Pink Fairies/ Hawkwind special is indispensable, and if it's anything to go by so should the Davie Allan issue be too, if you're a fan. Check 'em out now!Available from: Seth Wimpfheimer, c/o FUZ, PO Box 1211, Mountainside NJ 07092-0211, USA. Cheque/money order for $8 (US), or $10 International Money Orders only for the Rest of world. | |
| 13 August 2005 To
The Masterlock - Mick Farren Live In Japan 2004
the new CD by Mick Farren, will The CD loooks like it'll prove to be a real treat with a great mixture of old Deviants stuff right through the Vampires era to more recent Farren & the Deviants material. The twelve tracks are; I'm Coming Home; Arts of Darkness; Waiting For My Man; You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond; Half Price Drinks; Long Walk With The Demon; Slum Lord/Lost Johnny; Diabolo's Cadillac; Black Transit Blues/Dogpoet; Heartbreak Hotel; Ghost of the Yellow Dog; Trouble Coming Every Day. Captain
Trip Records also have a live Pink Fairies CD planned for release
in October tentatively titled Chinese Cowboys. Andy Colqhoun
has said; "It's 14 trax, 72 minutes, from two concerts in 1987."
Five tracks will be from the Cotswold Custom Show motorbike rally
at Long Marston in August of that year, and the other nine are from
Leeds - possibly Acid Daze 2? More details as and when. | |
| 3 July 2005 Alan
Burridge, novelist and head honcho of Motorheadbangers fan club
has written a fine essay on Mick Farren and his relationship with
Lemmy and Motorhead, as well as examining some of Mick's more recent
novels. Visit the Alan
Burridge website for the essay, Motorheadbangers fan club, and
loads more stuff, including details of Alan's latest novel, Guttersnipes.
| |
| 05 April 2005 Mick Farren's online serialisation Slide On The Run is now up and running again after being absent for several months. The episodes themselves have been shifted onto a new ISP and therefore have new URLs. Apologies for the malfunction. Episode 12 was the last instalment, and as yet has not graphic images to accompany it. If anyone has any pictures they'd like to submit for posting with this episode please e-mail them to Rich Deakin. Any suitable ones will be used and the sender will be acknowledged.
| |
| 19 March 2005 H.S.T. -Fear And Loathing In Los Angeles- Hunter S. Thompson Remembered - L.A. Writers read Hunter S. Thompson at Skylight Books, EighteenEighteen, N.Vermont, Los Feliz, March 19th 2005, 5.00PM.
| |
| 17 February 2005 Ken Matsutani has confirmed that Captain Trip Records plan to release a live album from Mick's Japanese tour in November 2004. No more details as of yet. (Apologies
for the continued absence of the Slide
On The Run serialisation. Normal service will be resumed
as soon as possible.) | |
| 6 February 2005 Apologies if you have been trying to access Mick Farren's Slide On The Run serialisation and the 2002 e-version of The Tale Of Willy's Rats. Slide will be up and running again soon, whilst The Tale Of Willy's Rats has a new URL, and is operational once more. Also
Skip Williamson, underground
cartoonist and artist, whose work features in Mick and Ed's Watch
Out Kids, has provided an updated link to his excellent website. | |
| 15 December 2004 Mick
has also posted reports of his Japanese tour on his blog site Doc40
- "Japan One" on 13/12/2004, "Japan Two" on
14/12/2004, and "Japan Three" on 15/12/2004. | |
| 13 December 2004 Funtopia is privileged to have been sent a report of Mick Farren's recent tour of Japan by Yukiko Akagawa. She has also sent a number of photographs taken by herself, Mimaki Konda of Captain Trip Records, Watabe and Rie - the bassist of Marble Sheep. Yukiko's report with links to the two photo galleries have been posted and take in the four dates at Hard Rain in Osaka, Day Trip in Nagoya and two dates in Tokyo - the frist at the UFO Club and the finale at the Blue Velvet evening at the Blue Chamber. Many
thanks to Yukiko! | |
| 15 November 2004
Also
of interest from Captain Trip Records is a Deviants CD single featuring
a live version of Taste The Blue as well as original versions
of The Deviants You've Got To Hold On and Let's Loot
The Supermarket originally released as the both sides of the
single from The Deviants 1968 LP Disposable. | |
| 27 October 2004
Mick writes... | |
| 31 August 2004 From the archives comes a review and couple of photographs by Chalkie Davies, from the NME, of an early Motorhead gig at the Marquee with guest appearance from Mick Farren. | |
| 22 August 2004
An ongoing collection of photographs, pictures etc. relating to
various incidents and | |
| 11 August 2004 The Funtopia review of Gene Vincent: There's One In Every Town has now been posted. | |
| 26 July 2004 "Freeform And Anarchic On Desolation Row" is an article by Mick on the 1971 Glastonbury Festival. It is available in the fifth issue of free UK magazine called FACT. The summer edition is a "festival special" and also has features on Joe Strummer called "Preserving the Madness...Glastonbury remembers Joe Strummer" and one called "Photgraphs from Glastonbury Fayre" with a number of Gabi Pape's photos from the early Glastonbury Fayres. It is available from independent record stores and selected clothing stores across the UK, or from FACT. | |
| 25 June 2004 Mick Farren has a new book published by Do-Not Press on July 25 2004. It is called Gene Vincent: There's One In Every Town. Mick has also finished Episode 12 of Funtopia's online serialisation Slide On The Run which will be published very shortly. | |
| 09 May 2004 After much inactivity on the Funtopia site for most of this year, exacerbated by the loss of a lot of archive material due to harddrive meltdown and sloppy back up procedures on my behalf, Funtopia is back in action. We are proud to post a poem called A Larry Wallis State of Mind written some time ago by,and recently rediscovered by Pete Frame, famous for his Rock Family Trees. The poem and the story behind it can be found in the Friends, Connections, and Co-conspirators of Mick Farren section of Funtopia. | |
| 3 January 2004 Episode 11 of Mick Farren's Funtopia serialisation Slide On The Run has now been posted and is entitled "Pirates of the Lower Quadrant". | |
| 23 December 2003 Funtopia brings news from Mick Farren about his forthcoming novel Kindling. "Kindling, which is the first book in a set of...well, how many more there'll be is something I have yet to negotiate or even figure out...but, as it stands at the moment there will probably more under the general series title Flame Of Evil. What we have here is an alternative history work in an approximately parallel time to the present, except, in this world, the Crusades never happened and scientific progress was considerably slower, Islam and Christianity never assumed the same dominance, and the Industrial Revolution and the "discovery" of America both got off to a much later start. To cap it all, the highly unpleasant Mosul Empire roared out of Asia Minor some two hundred years earlier, and, in an unholy alliance with the Teutons and Mamalukes, placed all of Norther Africa, and Eastern and Southern Europe under a tyrannical police-state theocracy and were only stopped at the English Channel by the Norse Union of Britain and Scandinavia. The action of the book takes place in an America where the only European settlements are a string of Kingdoms and Republics along the East Coast, while the rest of the continent is firmly in the hands of the native tribes and confederations. The Mosul under Hassan IX have just invaded from across the ocean, establishing a colonial beachhead in what would be Virginia. The techno level is kinda Victorian steam punk, with trains, airships, and some big nasty automatic artillery, but with an awful lot of Davy Crockett stuff thrown in for good measure. And just for even better measure, the paranormal plays a far greater part than it does in our world, and also allows for a lengthy visit by the inter-dimensional Yancey Slide (currently starring in his own web serial right here on Funtopia), plus guest spots by Johnny Cash, James Dean, Elvis, and JFK, who have very different job descriptions. Thus I can promise you cavalry charges and trench warfare, political satire, epic heroics, and weird shamanism, nasty sex, and nastier religions, public executions, and rip-snorting good fun. (Did someone say "movie"?) But before you all get too excited, girls and boys, the hardback won't be out until late summer, but you could annoy your local bookstore to order massive numbers of copies. A mammoth bestseller would make my life a whole lot more pleasant, and maybe even pay for new Renquist novels and a mass reissue of the old stuff." | |
| 19 December 2003 Friends, Neighbours, Comrades, Mick's latest blog is also below: (Wednesday December 17 2003) Blog? You gotta a problem with that? Yeah, I’ve started to blog even though my dislike of the word kept me away from the whole process for quite a while. I mean, blog wasn’t even on my spellcheck. (But then again neither is “spellcheck.”) Finally a very dear friend dared me – on penalty of my techno-pride – to I check it out. And, in the course of a single weekend, I took to the process like a duck to water. Or maybe Daffy Duck walking off the cliff (but he only falls when he looks down.) Obviously blogging is a seductive lure for us egomaniacs who believe their every thought is of such immense fucking significance that needs to communicated to the world. I was also attracted to the fluidity and ease of the system, and that, in a weird way, it rather resembled an advanced and more lucid version of Uncle Bill Burroughs cut-up fixation, plus blog-time tended have the appearance of running backwards, something that would obviously have its attractions for me. Also I like the transitory, message-in-bottle feel about it. Is anyone out there actually reading this? After running for a few days on a simple blogspot template, Rich Deakin of Funtopia came into the picture and customized the whole thing which made me very happy, and I’m now free to start thinking, gathering, cutting, pasting, and generally keeping a non-linear internal diary and scrapbook, with links, lures and all kinds of good stuff -- plus the usual errors and typos -- and hopefully something new at least every couple of days. The admiring and the pissed off are welcome to email me at... ...but be warned that relevant communications may find themselves posted. The friend who got me started also told me to talk to Rich about activating a comments device, but that is obviously something for the future. Assuming, of course, that there is a future." | |
| 7 December 2003 Mick has now set up his own Blog Spot. You can read all his latest "blogs", or musings at Doc 40, hosted by Blogger.com | |
| 1 December 2003 Now that it's advent and the season of peace and goodwill to all is supposedly upon us now's a good a time as any to post an article called Sex, Drugs And Yuletide Cheer in which Mick Farren traces the tradition of Christmas from its pagan origins through to its more modern roots. His recounting of an early 1970s Christmas day spent with Boss Goodman as head chef, and a motley bunch of other assorted scoundrels and sundry wastrels from the Ladbroke Grove rock 'n' roll scene is particularly amusing. This was originally published by The Spook online magazine last December. | |
| 28 November 2003
A new edition of CIA:Secrets
Of The Company has been published in the UK by Chrysalis
Impact. It is a smaller compact paperback format with a brand
new chapter called "The Assault On Terror" which takes in
the emergence of Osama Bin Laden and the origins of Al Qaida, and
with regard to -9/11 "the Agency's failure to prevent, or even
so much as warn against, the attacks on New York City and Washington..."
Check out LA City
Beat/Valley Beat # 25 for a new article by Mick Farren
called
"Cool Relics, Hot Cylons" in which Mick is pleasantly
surprised by the re-make of Battlestar
Galactica. | |
| 22 November 2003 Funtopia has been delving deep into the archives and has unearthed a Deviants article from ZigZag September 1969 in which "Mick Farren talks about the group". | |
| 17 November 2003 Mick has contributed a couple more articles to the LA City Beat/Valley Beat. The latest article is the cover story of #23 - 'The General Takes The Field'. Issue #22 has an article by Mick called "Live Ammo Fantasy" and is concerned with the the home video made by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris and their friends just weeks before carrying out the Columbine massacre. Mick has also contributed to the December 2003 issue of Mojo magazine with a great piece as part of a feature called '1969 And The New Testament'. Mick's article is called 'Dazed And Confused' and it "...chronicles the metamorphosis of psychedelia into progressive rock...From Pink Floyd's acid-fried freak-outs to King Crimson's neo-classical excesses..." | |
| 17 September 2003 Episode 10 of Slide On The Run - Lost In Space has finally been posted and the action is hotting up with Slide finding himself on a labyrinthine Eloi bio-craft contending with carnivorous orchids and space pirates of the Lower Quadrant. | |
| 9 September 2003 Mick Farren's recent confrontation with "right-wing harpie" Ann Coulter is the cover story, 'Princess Of The Stiletto-Cons', in the latest edition of Los Angeles City Beat/Valley Beat #13, (4 September 2003). Mick has also contributed a TV piece called 'Viva "Villa"'. The next episode of Slide On The Run is due very soon. Keep watching this space! | |
| 24 July 2003 Mick Farren is now contributing to Los Angeles City Beat/Valley Beat newspaper. In the latest edition #6, (17 July 2003) Mick has written a piece called "Belfast On The Tigris" in which he draws some strikingly familiar parallels with the situation in Iraq today with that of the troubles in Northern Ireland. And in a somewhat belated link to the first issue (12 June 2003) of this rather good newspaper, Mick has also penned a column called "TV Eye: Infinite Spin Zone" concerning the evolution of TV totalitarianism and how "...Orwell got it totally wrong; and that psycho-social control isn't all Victory Gin and brass bands. In fact, it's Sprite, American Idol, Xboxes, X-Men, blowjobs, and navel rings."
| |
| 13 July 2003 Archive time again. Funtopia has unearthed an article from Record Mirror, March 1971, entitled the "The Deviant Thoughts of Mick Farren". | |
| 11 July 2003 Following a workers' uprising on Mars things begin to get very hot for Slide and Lupo who have try and make good their escape in Workers Of Mars Unite, Episode 9 of Slide On The Run | |
| 20 June 2003 Mick Farren's prescient article "The Titanic Sails At Dawn" is finally online. It was first published in NME June 19, 1976, pp. 5-6. "The Titanic Sails At Dawn" is now regarded as a somewhat seminal article that warned that a "back to grass roots" music scene was necessary in order to challenge the status quo of the rock dinosaurs and the increasingly stagnant music scene. That movement was already in its nascent stages and a few months later it would, as everyone now knows, explode into the national consciousness as punk. | |
| 18 June 2003 Mick Farren, David Redshaw and Chalkie Davies check out the Wembley Country & Western Festival. "Boobs, Brandy, Boots, Bouffants, And Buffy" was first published in NME April 24, 1976. Funtopia has posted this as a companion piece, if you like, to Mick Farren's later country & western article "Live From Nashville: A Limey At Large In Music City USA" originally published in NME, November 13 1976, and recently re-published (May 2003) in The Sound And The Fury :40Years Of Classic Rock Journalism - A Rock's Back Pages Reader:, edited by Barney Hoskyns. Check out Rock's Back Pages website. | |
| 08 June 2003 A number of illustrations by the late, great cartoonist Edward Barker have been unearthed from the NME, dated mid 1970s. These NME Illustrations have been posted in the Ed Barker Gallery within the Friends, Connections & Coconspirators of Mick Farren section of Funtopia. | |
| 02 June 2003 "Transylvanian Mind Meld" - Episode 8 of Slide On The Run by Mick Farren has now been posted and finds our hero Yancey Slide embroiled in more than a little bizarre sex and unusual narcotic activity with Queen Mina of Extrosylvania. | |
| 28 May 2003 Mick
Farren's Nashville Adventures from 1976 can be found in Nashville
Adventures in 1976) in the new anthology of rock writing "The
Sound And The Fury -- A Rock's Backpages Reader" edited
by Barney Hoskyns, published by Bloomsbury. Or, See the latest Rock's
Back Pages on how to buy it at a discount price. | |
| 18 May 2003 The
latest episode of Slide
On The Run , Mick Farren's ongoing psychedelic time and
space serialisation, concerning the continuing adventures of Idimmu
demon Yancey Slide has now been posted and is called "The
Turquoise Tower". | |
| 15 May 2003
People Call You Crazy: The Story of Mick Farren Nineteen newly remastered tracks. Compiled by Mick Farren Sleevenotes by Mick Farren and Roy Carr Scheduled
for release 26th May
Tracks are: SLUM LORD; I WANT A DRINK; JUNIOR NARCO RANGERS; AZTEC CALENDAR*BILLY THE MONSTER; GARBAGE; HALF PRICE DRINKS; PAPA OO MAO MAO; BUT CHARLIE IT'S STILL MOVING; PEOPLE CALL YOU CRAZY; WHO NEEDS THE EGG?; IT'S ALRIGHTMA*;RUMBLING B(L)ACK TRANSIT BLUES; SOMEWHERE TO GO; I'M COMING HOME; DRUNK IN THE MORNING; MONA (THE WHOLE TRIP); DOGPOET*; SCREWED UP* * Previously unreleased in the UK Price will be £11.99 (+ £1 postage) Available
from Muze Mail Order, 3 Princess Parade, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 0QL | |
| 30 April 2003 After weeks of speculation as to whether it would go ahead or not, the eagerly anticipated Implosion "Gathering Of The Tribes" due to take place at the Roundhouse on Sunday May 25, and featuring the Deviants, Blue Cheer and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown amongst others, has been cancelled. The reasons are too complicated to go into detail here, but for a full explanation please follow the link to a "Message from the promoters", Ian Grant and Jeff Dexter, in Pooter's Psychedelic Shack Message Board dated 4/29/03. On
a better note, follow
the link for a recent review
of The DNA Cowboys Trilogy by Luck Lawler
from online "punk newspaper" New
York Waste . There is also a link to article by Mick concerning
the war in Iraq Now
Ain't The Time For Your Tears from Rock's
Back Pages earlier this month. | |
| 03 April 2003 Mick
Farren will
be signing The
DNA Cowboys Trilogy at Dark Delicacies, 4213 Burbank
Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505 (818 556 6660) on Saturday April 12th. | |
| 31 March 2003 Following
hot on the heels of the last episode of Slide
On The Run comes Episode 6 "A
Walk In Albert Park", in which, after having had group
sex with two martian hostesses, Slide makes the acquaintance of
one Joey Nightshade and proceeds towards an encounter with the Queen
of Extrosylvania. | |
| 23 March 2003 Got
dem old Baghdad blues? Thoroughly depressed with Bush, Blair and
Saddam and the whole sordid business of war? Yes? Then forget the
grim reality of war for a while, and escape to "The
Establishment of Mrs. Rosa Coote". This is the fifth and
latest episode of Mick's Slide
On The Run serialisation. More weird scenes on Mars where
Victorian perversion abounds. Plenty of new characters, as well
as the appearance of one Joey Nightshade - those familiar with Mick's
Renquist Quartet will know who this is. Extraordinary stuff! | |
| 24 February 2003 Don't
forget that Mick Farren will be appearing on the "Louie Free Radio
Show - The Intelligent Alternative - Brainfood From the Heartland"
on February 25 2003 at 8.05 EST or 13.05 GMT. | |
| 20 February 2003 A MESSAGE FROM MICK FARREN: "Dear Friends, Neighbors, Comrades, Associates, and People of Planet Earth, I may have already mentioned to some of you that I am currently writing a continuing fiction serial Slide On The Run that's being posted on the Funtopia website. It's already up to Episode Three (Episode 4* by the time this has been posted! - Rich D.) and has only just begun to cook. Already Yancey Slide has advanced through deceit, betrayal, multi-dimensional psychedelic warfare, and time distortion substance abuse. Future instalments promise paranormal conspiracy, paranoid crustaceans, Victorian perversion on Mars, and maybe a guest appearance by Victor Renquist among a cast of quite extraordinary ladies and gentlemen. The writing is, of course, absurdly self-indulgent, but since it's a serial, it moves at a fairly dizzying pace, and if you don't like one situation there'll be another one along in a minute, and, anyway, it's stone free, and unobtainable by any other means. Check it out before the power structure blows up the planet. To those of you with web connections, I can only say that links, plugs, and recommendations will be greeted with extreme gratitude. Felicitations, Mick Farren" *Episode
4 has indeed now been posted and is called "Life
On Mars?"...Follow the links and read on! | |
| 12 February 2003 Episode
3 of Slide
On The Run finds Yancey Slide tracking down his old buddy
Doc Zen to Arts
Snooker-Second Floor, but his movements have not gone unobserved.
Now read on. | |
| 10 February 2003 Mick
Farren has contributed a story called "Again The Last Plane
Out" to an anthology of work called CARVED IN ROCK and it features
stories by: It's published byThunders Mouth Press at Avalon Publishing Group. Publication
date is April 2003. | |
| 5 February 2003 Mick
Farren will be appearing on the "Louie Free Radio Show - The Intelligent
Alternative - Brainfood From the Heartland"
on February 25 2003 at 8.05 EST or 13.05 GMT. | |
| 26 January 2003 Episode 2 of Mick Farren's new serialisation Slide On The Run is now online. It is called "Doing The Jump Without A Body" - it keeps getting weirder! | |
| 18 January 2003 The first episode of a new Mick Farren story, exclusive to Funtopia, called Slide On The Run is due to be posted sometime in the next week. Click on the link for full details. | |
| 3 January 2003 A blast from the past to start off the new year. Mick Farren talks to Chris Salewicz about booze, The Deviants and the "new wave" of '77, Larry Wallis, Wilko Johnson and Vampires Stole My Lunch Money amongst other things in this NME article from September 30 1978 called "Farren - Is there life after Dingwalls?".. | |
| 24 December 2002 RIP Joe Strummer - 1952-2002 | |
| 22 December 2002 New Years D(Eve)iance :The Deviants will be performing with Concrete Blonde at the Knitting Factory on News Years Eve and auld aquaintance will most certainly be forgot. (Knitting Factory: Address - 7021 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028, telephone - +1 323 463 0204) | |
| 18 December 2002 Funtopia Exclusive :News of a serialisation of a brand new story by Mick Farren called Slide On The Run, which will be posted as an ongoing serialisation can be found in Funtopia's short stories section. The further adventures of the renegade demon Yancey Slide promise to be something very special, not to mention weird if the first, and soon to be posted, episode "This Fucking Body's Nine Parts Shot!" is anything to go. Check it out! | |
| 7 December 2002 There are several new additions to Funtopia. Two pieces have been added to the Articles, Interviews, & Ephemera section. The first is a Mick Farren NME article about the "new look" for British comics called Do You Know What Your Little Brother's Reading?. The other is a somewhat tongue in cheek piece, ...No Need To Ask About This Man about Mick from the THRILLS section of NME. Both pices are from 1977. The other significant addition is to the Boss Goodman Feature in the Friends, Connections & Co-conspirators section. It is a DJ-ing feature by Boss, from a 1975 edition of NME. | |
| 10 November 2002 Two new reviews of The DNA Cowboys Trilogy and Underland have now been posted in the fiction section Funtopia, and whilst we're on the subject , The DNA Cowboys Trilogy can be ordered in the United States through Borderlands Books in San Francisco for the time being, whilst it can still be ordered through Amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom. | |
| 9
November 2002
Funtopia has unearthed an contemporary book review of The Tale of Willy's Rats. It is by Charles Shaar Murray, and was first published in NME April 12 1975. | |
| 27
October 2002 Recording
News :
The aforementioned recording of Strawberry Fields Forever (see
Funtopia News 6 October 2002) by The Deviants with Concrete Blonde
& The Deviettes is now finished and is one hell of a version
and has got to be heard. It is available as a free audio streaming
download, along with full personnel details etc., through the Concrete
Blonde Official Website, which is worth checking out in its
own right anyway. You may have to download the latest free version
of RealOne
Player in order to stream it. Book
News : Mick has now completed the first draft of the fantasy epic Flame of Evil (all 160,000 words of it!) and sent it off to Tor. It should be published later next year. | |
| 24
October 2002
Book News:
Mick Farren will be signing his newly published novel, UNDERLAND,
the last of what's come to be known as the Renquist Quartet, this
Saturday afternoon, October 26th., from 2 to 4 at Dark Delicacies,
4213 Burbank Blvd, Burbank. For information and directions call
818 556 6660 | |
| 6
October 2002
Recording News:
The Deviants have been keeping busy in the wake of the Dr Crow
CD release, and have been in the studio recording a version
of Beatles classic Strawberry Fields Forever. Mick gave these
details: "Two weeks ago, a combination of the Deviants, Concrete Blonde
and others of the parish went into Gremlin studios to cut a version
of "Strawberry Fields Forever". It's now minutes away from a finished
mix. Plans are to do more stuff, but I don't exactly know where
all this is going in the long run. In the immediate, however, it
will be uploaded and linked to all the relevant websites as a streaming
download. " Book
News: A collection of short stories by Mick Farren called Zones of Chaos is due to be published sometime later this year by Alan Beatts of Borderlands Books in San Francisco. More details as and when they come. | |
| 26 September 2002 "Giving Anarchists Cigarettes" :An Interview with Mick Farren by Richard Marshall is available online in 3AM Magazine | |
| 25
September 2002 Dr Crow has been released by Track Records on September 23, and is also available online through Amazon UK. | |
| 22
September 2002 All chapters of The Tale of Willy's Rats have been posted and are available for downloading. The DNA Cowboys Trilogy published by Do-Not Press earlier this month can be ordered online through Amazon. | |
| 7
September 2002 The new 2002 introduction, by Mick Farren, to The Tale of Willy's Rats has now been posted to officially launch the online edition of the book.The remaining instalments will be posted in two weeks time and will also be completely free! | |
| 1 September 2002 Details on how to order The DNA Cowboys Trilogy due to be published by the Do-Not Press can now be found online. The online edition of The Tale of Willy's Rats is now ready to be posted. The first instalment - Mick's new 2002 introduction - is due to be published by Saturday September 7. The remaining chapters will be posted over the next month. Invitations for new artwork are still being invited. See The Tale of Willy's Rats website for full details. | |
| 17 August 2002 Nicholas Lezard's glowing review of the paberback edition of Give the Anarchist a Cigarette in The Guardian, August 17, 2002 As a counterpoint to Mick's tribute poster, an article by Mick from NME in 1974 called There Is No Truth In The Rumour That Elvis Is Losing His Marbles has also been posted in the Funtopia's Articles, Interviews & Ephemera along with a fresh link to The Vince Eugene Story, which despite the Gene Vincent play on words is nonetheless a piss take cartoon strip about Elvis written by Mick Farren with artwork by Dave Gibbons. | |
| 12 August 2002 In timely fashion to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death Funtopia has reproduced the cover of Elvis Presley, 1935-1977: An Appreciation by Mick Farren. This was Mick Farren's poster tribute to the King produced straight after Elvis's death in 1977. The cover is posted in Funtopia's Articles, Interviews & Ephemera section. | |
| 11 August 2002 An interview with Doug Lunn, Deviants bassist can now be found in the Friends, Connections & Coconspirators pages of Funtopia, as well as a couple of links to sites concerning both Doug Lunn and current Deviants drummer Ric Parnell. | |
| 5 August 2002 The latest Deviants recording Dr Crow
is scheduled to be released by Track in the UK sometime in late September
or early October. The cover artwork has been posted below.
Artwork for the online cover of The Tale of Willy's Rats
is still invited. See full details from 29 July Online book news. An interview with Doug Lunn, Deviants bassist, by Ken Shimamoto of I-94 Bar will be posted soon. | |
29 July 2002 
Recording News: THE DEVIANTS - DR CROW HORROR, PSYCHOSIS, A HANGOVER, AND A NICE ADAM FAITH SONG Six years have passed since the DEVIANTS
made a full blown and fully integrated studio CD, and even longer since
one was released in the United Kingdom. That the band who were once
referred to as the Bash Street Kids on acid should not only still be
recording music, but still pushing the neo-weird envelope of the twenty
first century is a story in itself.
Recorded in Los Angeles where the neo-weird lays as thick in the
hollows as the smog from the sports utility vehicles, DR CROW proves
that those who don't remember Syd Barrett will have to invent the
whole thing all over again. It also demonstrates that, over the thirty
five-some years they have spent in the some of the most dangerous
trenches of rock & roll, the Deviants have become frighteningly
good at what they do.
The driving force behind DR. CROW is the age-long, classic, guitar/singer
partnership between MICK FARREN and ANDY COLQUHOUN. ("We take it in
turns to lead the charge.") Their song-writing is now at a level where
Colquhoun provides the ultimate post-Hendrix power and context to
Farren's wasteland visions of TV vacant lots where Shakespeare is
try to cop a dime bag, and urban wolves have made their liar. None
of this would be possible, however, without the drums and percussion
of the mighty RIC PARNELL, and the masterclass bass of DOUG LUNN,
who's rhythm also dominates recent work by Brother Wayne Kramer.
Also in the mix are the additional drums of PHILTHY ANIMAL TAYLOR
from the premium days of MOTORHEAD, the saxophones of JACK LANCASTER,
and the amazing voice of JOHNETTE NAPOLITANO, late of CONCRETE BLONDE,
who duets with Farren on the standout Beefheart/blues classic "You're
Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond" and also stand with the DEVIETTES
on "What Do You Want (It You Don't Want Money)"
This time round, the Deviants also have powerful synergy going for
them. Farren's recently published memoir "Give The Anarchist A Cigarette"
has been ultra-well received by both critics and readers. A growing
cult following has formed around Andy Colquhoun's guitar playing.
The response to recent re-issues of most of the 1960s/70s Deviants
and PINK FAIRIES material also serves as a pointer to the time being
right for a re-examination of a band who were both godfathers and
fountainhead of a particular genre of rock mayhem out of Ladbroke
Grove and all points west. DR CROW has both the timing and quality
to reap the benefits.
But no one knows like the Deviants that the time must be seized.
The release of DR CROW will come with major internet promotion, and,
like veterans of the revolution, all the press they can bully or shake
a stick at. Live webcasts are being set up, and plans are afoot for
the band to make some long awaited live appearances in the UK and
Europe. | |
| 9 July 2002 Live News: Recording News: Book News: The US paperback of More Than Mortal is out now published by Tor Books. The DNA Cowboys Trilogy will be out in September 2002, from Do Not Press, London. The fourth Victor Renquist vampire novel Underland will be coming from Tor in October. A proper collection of poetry, lyrics, and short prose titled Zones of Chaos is currently being assembled with the people at Borderland Books in San Francisco. And, if all that wasn't enough, a deal has been made and contracts have been signed to publish Jim Morrison's Adventures In The Afterlife in Russian. It should be out next year. | |
| 21 May 2002 Further in the matter of Dead Cats Bouncing, those good folks at Necro Publications have given us a link direct to the relevant page on their site, where the book can be ordered online. And well worth ordering it is, too. Mick's contribution marks the return of none other than Yancey Slide. See also our own new DCB page. |
|
| 18 April 2002 Mick has contributed a "science fiction adventure" to Dead Cats Bouncing, edited by Gerard Houarner & GAK, Illustrated by GAK (Bedlam Press; 219 pp.; $13.95; ISBN 1-889186-25-2). The long-awaited republication of DNA Cowboys is set for August 2002. Further details as and when. And the paperback edition of Give The Anarchist A Cigarette is set for publication in July 2002. |
|
| 19 March 2002 Another long-lost Mick Farren short story, "A Line's A Line", with illustration by Ed Barker, is reproduced in our Short Stories pages. |
|
| 27 February 2002 An unpublished chapter of Give The Anarchist A Cigarette, entitled "Frost and Benn, The Flowerpot Men" is reproduced in our "Friends and Co-Conspirators" pages. |
|
| 19 November Some news we've all been awaiting for a long time. Over to Mick: "Contracts have now been signed on a deal with the Do Not Press in London to publish the original DNA Cowboys Trilogy as a single fat volume. It should be out in mid-2002 if we all survive that long. And this probably wouldn't have happened without all the email support I received from the vistors to Funtopia. Like Elvis used to say...thank you, thank you very much." |
|
| 15 November Well, we in the UK missed seeing The Deviants, their appearance at the Greasy Truckers Party being cancelled, but we had the consolation of a sterling Mick Farren reading at London's Filthy McNasty's, with Larry Wallis on guitar accompaniment. Report to follow. Denizens of LA can catch the Deviants at the "Night Of The Deviants" party on 24 November at The Garage, Santa Monica Blvd. Check the Alive/Total Energy site for further details. |
|
| 9 October On November 9th, at 8pm, Mick Farren will be giving a talk entitled "The Ethics of Barbarism" at Wesleyan University's Eclectic House, located at 200 High St., in Middletown, CT. And the next day, Saturday November 10th, he'll be doing a solo poetry-rant-reading at the Yod Collective --- Doors & victuals at 7:00 PM. performance at 8:00 PM. at the New Grass Center for Underground Culture, 221 Pine Street #4b1, Florence MA USA 01062 ph: 413-587-9400. websales@yod.com for reservations or directions or whatever. It's about 100 miles west of Boston, 150 miles north of NYC, just above Northampton MA in an old brush factory. The space is fairly small, so it's good to call ahead to let us know yr coming." |
|
| STOP PRESS: 30 September |
|
| 22 August 2001 "More Than Mortal", third in the Victor Renquist series, now finally published and available from Amazon and all good bookstores. |
|
| 13 July 2001 The novel "Underland", the fourth and (for the moment) final book of what's now being called the Renquist Quartet is finished and dispatched to the publisher. The third volume "More Than Mortal" will be published in the USA next month. |
|
| From the vault: a rediscovered Mick Farren short story, The Marshal's Habit, circa 1973; plus associated poem, date unknown. Also a short commentary by Mick Farren which points out the relevance of Doc Holliday to several of Mick's fictional works. | |
| Alan Burridge, chairman of the UK Motorhead Fan Club, author of various books on Lemmy & Co, and good mate of this site, has released an e-novel, The Message ("an intriguing crime thriller"). It's available for download at http://www.e-booksonline.net/ - it'll cost ya a mere couple of bucks or quid or yen or whatever, so give it a go! | |
| Two tracks by The Deviants, "B(l)ack Transit Blues" and "Metamorphosis Exploration" (both from Deviants #3) and one by Mick Farren, "Observe The Ravens" (from Mona) appear on the double CD -- 2001 A Rock Odyssey (Sanctuary) - along with music from the likes of Hawkwind, Man, Status Quo, Stray and Atomic Rooster. The superbly packaged package is being marketed as "stoner space rock from the late 60s and early 70s." Like, 4-20, Houston, okay? | |
| RIP ... | |
|
22 December 2002 Joe Strummer 1952-2002
Pic: Pennie Smith RD |
| 6 May 2002 Otis Blackwell. |
|
| 18 May 2002 Sharon Sheeley. Check out the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame page. |
|
be
out on or around Sept 24th, on 
