- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (18 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224060740
- ISBN-13: 978-0224060745
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.8 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 436,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Give The Anarchist A Cigarette
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"In some quarters, I was regarded as a highly suspect, self-publicising egomaniac." There is little in Give the Anarchist a Cigarette--a self-aggrandising but hugely entertaining memoir--that would lead you to form any other opinion of Mick Farren. His unabashed egotism is present on every. Farren, who ran the door at the now legendary psychedelic club UFO and worked on the underground paper International Times--even successfully defending it against an obscenity charge--was a key figure in London's 60s and 70s counter-culture scene. In an era not known for restraint, he imbibed extraordinary quantities of drink and drugs and generally indulged in the kind of sexual gymnastics that now carry severe health warnings. Former lovers included Germaine Greer and Julie Burchill. His band, The Deviants, were, as he rather tirelessly points out, punk years before the Sex Pistols. They played Hyde Park, toured with the Pretty Things and a fledgling Led Zeppelin and cut a series of influential albums. As flower power gave way to the three-day week Farren concentrated on writing, working for the New Musical Express and penning a series of fantasy novels--the latter he informs us are now regarded by one critic as the "definite forerunners" of cyberpunk fiction. Assessments of his own contribution to contemporary culture may be inflated but Farren's candid, amusing and intelligent book offers a vivid and insightful portrait of rock & roll's finest decades.--Travis Elborough
Product Description
A highly personal account of British counterculture in the 1960s and 70s, from early beatnik adventures in Ladbroke Grove, through the flowering of hippies to the snarl of punk. Along the way, Farren describes encounters with the celebrated and the notorious.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Counterculture Hooray,
This review is from: Give The Anarchist A Cigarette (Pimlico) (Paperback)
A hugely enjoyable memoir of the 60's and 70's. You get an idea of how colourful Mick Farren's early career (as a musician, journalist and agitator) was by looking at the his own entry in the index: ''at House of the Chinese Landlord, 3, 5-13... selling clockwork jumping dogs, 5... transvestite gunfighter period, 65... running door at UFO, 77-83... meets Jimmy Hendrix, 97-8... oral sex at Roundhouse, 100-1, 103... police work over, 134... Great Nitrous Oxide Heist, 320-2... Synaptic Manhunt, 354... affair with Julie Burchill, 368-70...' He tells some wonderful anecdotes, like the one about a gang of grunting bikers getting into a hippie club with the intention of beating up some 'freaks', but getting seduced by a crack team of peace-keeping flower-goddesses before they'd thrown a single punch. It's amazing how easy it seems to have been back then to put together a band, record an album, start a club, publish a newspaper, or organize a rock festival, on a whim. I've never read a better evocation of the era.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toughguy in fairyland,
This review is from: Give the Anarchist a Cigarette (Hardcover)
Covering the notorious journalist, musician, author and general loudmouth's London years, this book gives a not-so romantic perspective of the swingin' years of the UK capital. Always opiniated, always judging and luckily always being _there_, Farren tells of an uglier side of the hippie dream, and delivers with great bravour, sardonic wit and with a macho style that could be annoying - but is somehow balanced with a hint of young man's despair.
Farren's freak bands certainly were no Pink Floyd, actually you get another level underneath London's underground scene: a sub sub culture. Still, in regards of namedropping, London in the 60s was incestuos as far as who mingled with who (not to mention who played in what band), so they're all there, no worries. As the original freak scene dwindled, a new one took over. A fine anecdote is that of a sneering (when is he not?) John Lydon, measuring Farren's hippie flares and finding them too wide: A new freak scene taking over from the old. The cover image shows him as a rough'n tough doorman for the UFO club (if I remember correctly). And that sort of sums him up: a greasy biker type, living on the outskirts of the hippie dream. Always there, always observing - but not always taking part in the dream itself. It's a fun read, and your image of the swingin' sixties might be altered forever. Recommended historical read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some good anecdotes some average,
By goldgreen "goldgreen" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Give the Anarchist a Cigarette (Hardcover)
Farren was at the centre of swinging-London from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, so there really should be more great stories - clearly some things escaped him. My favourite, however, is meeting John Peel and Germaine Greer at a Who gig and Germaine going home with him rather than a put-out Mr Peel. Re other comments on this page, I think Farren makes a bold, effort to glamourise as much as possible, more in an effort to entertain the reader rather than as a sign of his own insecurity.
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