Mick Farren

English journalist, writer, poet, musician, activist, agent provocateur and anarchist, born. Frontman for anarchist proto-punk band The Deviants (1967-69) plus various reunions/one-offs. Solo artist whose albums include the wonderfully titled 'Vampires Stole My Lunch Money' (1978). Co-writer on songs for The Pink Faries, Hawkwind and Motörhead. Organiser of the Phun City Festival in 1970.

Writer for, and briefly editor of, 'International Times' and later 'New Musical Express'. Columnist for 'Trouser Press' and 'LA CityBeat'. Author of 23 science fiction novels, including: the 'DNA Cowboys Trilogy' (actually a quartet; 1976-1989) and 'Jim Morrison's Adventures in the Afterlife' (1999); plus 11 non-fiction books, such as 'Conspiracies, Lies And Hidden Agendas: Our Deepest Secret Fears, from the Antichrist to the Trenchcoat Mafia' (1999), 'Who's Watching You?: The Chilling Truth about the State, Surveillance and Personal Freedom' (2007), 'Elvis Died for Somebody's Sins But Not Mine: A Lifetime's Collected Writing' (2013), and his 2001 memoir, 'Give The Anarchist A Cigarette'; and reams of poetry, including the collection 'Black Dogs Circled' (2012).

He was also a prominent activist in the White Panthers UK, helping organised free food and other support services for free festivals from the Windsor Free Festival in 1972 onwards. "There I was, cocky and paranoid, yet another anarchist art student teenage asshole, rebel without a clue, too dumb to recognise the impossible but with that burning desire to do it. It was 1967, and all things seemed possible, we wanted the world and we wanted it now. Vietnam was getting ugly and LSD-25 was hitting the headlines." - Notes for 'PTOOFF!' [A thousand miles of barbed wire starts with the first barb…]

Farren also appeared at the Old Bailey as one of the defendants in the 1972 prosecution of Bloom Publications and the staff of the comic 'Nasty Tales' for possessing obscenity with the intent to distribute in connection with issue number one, which featured Robert Crumb's cartoon 'Grand Opening of the Great Intercontinental Fuck-in and Orgy Riot'. It had already appeared in 'IT' without incident but the discovery of the comic in the possession of an eight-year-old boy by his mother led to a complaint to the police and thence to the trial. Bloom Publications and the comic book's staff were found not guilty in January 1973 but the costs of the trial put an end to 'Nasty Tales' (though a follow up comic 'The Trials of Nasty Tales' was published shortly after the trial ended).

Mick Farren died the ultimate rock and roll death – other than overdosing on heroin and dying in a pool of your own vomit – collapsing on stage from a heart attack while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London on July 27, 2013.