Mick Farren
Born in Cheltenham but raised in Worthing and educated in London, Mick Farren first entered music as a member of the group the Mafia around 1962. He then passed through a couple of R&B bands before forming a Fugs-type outfit which evolved into the Social Deviants in 1967. After his time with the Deviants (from which he was kicked out and stranded in America) and a brief spell in the very first line-up of the Pink Fairies, Farren released his debut solo album, MONA THE CARNIVOROUS CIRCUS in 1970. That same year Farren also worked on the original production of Twink's first solo album THINK PINK. Farren then retired from performing music and turned to writing. At first he wrote science fiction but later produced a number of books such as THE FEELIES, WATCH OUT KIDS, and THE TALE OF WILLY'S RATS. He also started the underground comic NASTY TALES, edited IT, contributed to the New Musical Express, organized the Phun City Festival and still found time to collect toy robots. He started to get back into music around 1976/7 when he began writing songs with Lemmy from Motorhead. He also recorded some tracks (including a reworking of the Deviant's anthem Let's Loot The Supermarket) which was released as an EP on Stiff Records. In 1977 he recorded a version of To Know Him Is To Love Him for the Phil Spector tribute album BIONIC GOLD, before he got round to recording his second solo album in 1978. VAMPIRES STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY featured contributions from Wilko Johnson, Andy Colquhoun, Sonja Kristina, Chrissie Hynde, Larry Wallis and others. To promote the album Farren assembled the Good Guys with Colquhoun and Wallis on guitars, Will Stallybrass on harmonica, Gary Tibbs on bass, and Alan Powell on drums. Colquhoun and Powell were both from Tanz Der Youth while Tibbs was just out of the Vibrators. Farren later married Betsy Volck of Ze Records and moved to New York where he released a single on Ork. He continues to write.