Radio Gonzo

I was very fond of Mick Farren. I only met him the once – pretty much a year ago – but we spoke on the telephone several times, and although we didn't know each other well enough to be friends, I truly believe that had he lived we would have become friends very quickly. It was Mick who looked at what I was doing with Gonzo Weekly and encouraged me to radicalise it and – especially as it had been his writing during the '60s and '70s which put me on the path that I have followed ever since as a rock journalist – I took his advice, and the Gonzo Weekly that you are reading now is, in great part, down to him. As I am sure you all know, he died in the summer of last year, ironically on a day that I, together with my wife and niece, was on my way to visit him. I wrote the following essay for the booklet to accompany what turned out to be Mick's final album. For various technical reasons it didn't appear, although it will appear in the next pressing. I thought, therefore, as we are looking back at the achie