The Deviants (live at The Borderline)

The Borderline, London
23 March 2012

The Deviants blasted out of the underground psychedelic scene in 1967. While Syd Barrett was taking the Pink Floyd into outer space and Jimi Hendrix was making his guitar wail to all the ‘foxy ladies,’ Mick Farren’s gang of urchins were singing the hymns of squat-land. With albums such as Ptoof!, Disposable and 3, the troubadours of Notting Hill sang proto-punk anthems while down the road bands such as Quintessence sang about “Jesus and Buddha.” While on a tour of the States the band imploded and became The Pink Fairies, leaving Farren out in the cold to become fist-waving conscience of the International Times and other underground tomes of the times. Intermittently over the last 40 years the Deviants have regrouped and have gone back out on the road and into the studio to remind us why their music still matters.

In tonight’s line up we have three of the original members on stage and giving it all they have got. Ex-Pink Fairies and original Deviants Duncan (Sandy) Sanderson and Russell Hunter (bass and drums) join head honcho Mick Farren on stage along with other long-standing member Andy Colquhoun on guitar. The set opens with Sandy singing a killer version of The Velvets‘ “I’m Waiting For The Man,” and already we hear just what an amazing and powerful rhythm section Hunter and Sanderson are together as they clatter away through the piece giving it a hard punk/blues feel. When the song is finished Farren saunters on to the stage and sits on a stool – “I think I’ve earned the right to sit down now,” he quips as the band launch into “Half Price Drinks.” Andy Colquhoun’s guitar is ablaze as he chops away at Larry Wallis‘ original guitar parts and makes them his own.

The band don’t want to come across as a museum piece so there are plenty of new songs put into the set to prove that they are still a working unit. One of these is a highlight called “Something to do Between Cigarettes,” where Farren reels off a catalogue of things he could be getting up to between lighting up his next stick. But as always with gigs by revered bands like The Deviants people want to hear the classics, so when “Billy the Monster” rears his ugly head he gets a massive cheer. Here again the guitar soars and Hunter reminds us why he’s one of the greatest drummers to emerge from the late Sixties (if you don’t believe me, just take a listen to the Fairies album What a Bunch of Sweeties; nuff said). By the time we are climbing aboard the “Rambling Black Transit Blues,” the show is coming to an end and all far to damn quickly for us in the audience. For me the 90 minutes have flown by far too fast and I could have stayed there for another 90.

It was great to see them perform live once again and to remind us that they are not a band locked in the amber of the 1960s, but a living organism that’s still creating new music. The attitude is still there with the band and when they lift off they are a powerhouse of psychedelic rock that makes you realise just how damn important they are to still have around. The only thing is, next time Mick could you do “Police Car”?

-Gary Parsons-