Biography
During the closing years of the 1960s, the Deviants served as Britain’s counterpart to the Fugs while incorporating aspects of the Mothers of Invention and the R&B-rooted rock approach heard in the Yardbirds and the Pretty Things. Their foundations lay less in the British Invasion than in the psychedelic underground that coalesced in London between 1966 and 1967. Starting out as little more than novices, the band extracted maximum invention from modest instrumental and songwriting means on their first album, Ptooff!, which wove together fierce social critique, feverish sexual desire, extended psychedelic exploration, blues-derived riffs, and gentle acoustic pieces within the span of seven tracks. Later releases from the 1960s retained a confrontational tone yet failed to match the songwriting strength of that debut. Frontman Mick Farren cut a solo album as the decade wound down and subsequently earned recognition as a rock critic. He returned at intervals to perform and record both on his own and with revived editions of the Deviants. Farren died in July 2013 at the age of 69 after collapsing onstage during a Deviants concert in London.
Albums
