The Social Deviants were founded by singer/writer Mick Farren (born Michael Anthony Farren, 3rd September 1943, in Gloucester, Gloucestershire) in 1967 out of the Ladbroke Grove UK Underground community, featuring Pete Munro on bass; Clive Muldoon on guitar, Mike Robinson on guitar and Russell Hunter on drums (born Barry Russell Hunter, 26th April 1946, in Woking, Surrey).
The band shortened their name to The Deviants after Munro and Muldoon left and were replaced by Sid Bishop on guitar (born Ian Bishop, 17th December 1946, Balham, South West London) and Cord Rees on bass. With the financial backing of Nigel Samuel, the 21-year-old son of a millionaire, whom Farren had befriended, the group independently recorded their debut album Ptooff!, selling copies through the UK Underground press before it was picked up by Decca Records.
Rees left the band in June 1967 to be replaced by Farren's flatmate Duncan Sanderson (born 31st December 1948, in Carlisle, Cumbria) and the band released a second album, Disposable, through the independent label Stable Records.
When Bishop married and left the band, Farren recruited Canadian guitarist Paul Rudolph (born Paul Fraser Rudolph, 14th June 1947, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) at the suggestion of Jamie Mandelkau. This band recorded and released the album The Deviants 3 through Transatlantic Records.
During a tour of North America's west coast the relationship between Farren and the musicians became personally and musically strained, and the band decided to continue without Farren, who returned to England where he teamed up with ex-Pretty Things drummer Twink (born John Charles Alder, 29th November 1944, in Colchester, Essex) and Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter, 28th July 1949, in Eltham, South East London) to record the album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus, an album interspersed with interviews with members of the U.K Hells Angels, before concentrating on music journalism.
The three remaining musicians - Rudolph, Sanderson and Hunter - returned to England, and teamed up with Twink to form the Pink Fairies.
In the mid-1970s Farren was offered a one-off deal by Stiff Records to record an EP, Screwed Up, which was released under the name Mick Farren and The Deviants. The musicians on this record included Rudolph, former Pink Fairies/Motörhead guitarist Larry Wallis, former Warsaw Pakt bassist Andy Colquhoun and former Hawkwind drummer Alan Powell. This band, without Rudolph, went on to record the album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and the non-album single Broken Statue, both credited to Mick Farren rather than The Deviants.
At the end of the 1970s Farren again concentrated on his writing and relocated to New York. He would resurrect The Deviants name for occasional live performances, such as in February 1984 when he teamed up with Wayne Kramer and Wallis's band, which featured Sanderson and drummer George Butler. This set was released as Human Garbage. In 2002 a new line-up of the band (featuring bassist Doug Lunn, drummer Rick Parnell and vocalist Michael Simmons) released Dr Crow.
Farren then continued to perform and record sporadically under the name The Deviants, using a pool of musicians, which include Colquhoun and former Blodwyn Pig saxophonist Jack Lancaster. Eating Jello With A Heated Fork was released in 1996, credited to Deviants IXVI, followed by 2002's Dr Crow. On June 25th 2011, after returnning tolive in the UK, Farren performed on the Spirit of 21 stage at the Glastonbury Festival with The Last Men Standing. The band included Colquhoun and the Deviants late-1960s rhythm section of Sanderson and Hunter.
During a rare performance by The Deviants at The Borderline in Central London on 27th July 2013, Farren collapsed on stage. He died later in hospital.
This album was originally released in 1999. Critic Dave Thompson writes:
'Half live, half-studio Left the Planet bristles with the highest octane intake of new Mick Farren songs in years -- and anyone armed with the Barbarian Princes live album will already know what that means. Studio takes on that album's murderous "Aztec Calendar" and "God's Worst Nightmare" are joined by a sinister, semi-snarled take on Dylan's "It's Alright Ma," so battered that it effortlessly snags the honorable title of Most Deliciously Disreputable Dylan Cover Ever. The bulk of the album was recorded with Farren's Deviants lineup of guitarist/bassist Andy Colquhoin and former Motörhead drummer Phil Taylor -- itself an aggregation to make your skin crawl. Four live tracks from sundry Terrastock and L.A. shows, however, add a shapeless shadow to any sense of well-being which familiarity might conjure up -- the spectral "Yellow Dog" is chilling no matter how many times you hear it, while the closing "Memphis Psychosis" blends blues, Elvis, and dark dreams about Bo Diddley to equally spine-chilling effect. Farren walked this way once before, with the deranged take on "Mona" which highlights Carnivorous Circus. But that was a long time ago. This is what happened when Mona hit puberty. An unexpected reprise of Farren's 1977 single "Let's Loot the Supermarket Again" serves up a moment of light relief -- as light, that is, as visions of urban unrest and street fighting can be. But the overall mood of the album remains fearful, foreboding, and absolutely poisonous, a kick in the small of the back to propel you into a world which restructures the sound of the rock revolution before the media middlemen tacked their percentage on top -- and it proves that some things really can't be bought or sold. Peace of mind is one of them.'
