Mick Farren

Mick Farren, lead singer for the Deviants, collapsed on stage last night (July 27) in London. He passed away shortly thereafter.

And, as David G. Hartwell reminded his Facebook followers, “Mick Farren was also a talented SF and fantasy writer who got too little attention in the USA.”  Farren’s career is covered in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia.

Of his music career, Ultimateclassicrock.com said —

Farren was a creation unto himself. Part hippie, part beatnik, part punk, part poet, part rocker, he was a genuine icon amongst the rock and roll underground of the ’60s and ’70s. He was associated with everyone from the Hells Angels to Jerry Rubin. His activism was tempered with realism, and he was never afraid to speak his mind. “We won’t save our civilization, we might save our planet, we might save our species,” Farren told the audience during a legendary appearance on the David Frost Show in 1970. “That’s what we’re concerned with…that’s all.”

 [Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]