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UFO Club

Coordinates:51°31′06″N0°07′55″W/ 51.518354°N 0.132073°W/51.518354; -0.132073
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UFOria

TheUFO Club(/juːfoʊ/YEW-foh) was a short-livedBritish counter-culturenightclub in London in the 1960s. The club was established byJoe BoydandJohn "Hoppy" Hopkins.It featured light shows, poetry readings, well-known rock acts such asJimi Hendrix,avant-garde art byYoko Ono,as well as localhouse bands,such asPink FloydandSoft Machine.[1]The club operated for the nine months from December 1966 to August 1967, and an additional seven months at 31Tottenham Court RoadinFitzrovia,followed by a further two months at theRoundhouseinChalk Farm.

History

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The UFO Club was founded byJohn Hopkinsknown as "Hoppy" andJoe Boydin the Blarney Club, an Irish dancehall in the basement of 31Tottenham Court Road,under the Gala Berkeley Cinema which was opened on Friday 23 December 1966. Initially the club was advertised as "UFO Presents Nite Tripper", because Boyd and Hopkins could not decide on "UFO" or "Nite Tripper" as a name.[2]Eventually they settled on "UFO".

Soft MachineandPink Floydperformed on the opening night and the next Friday, and were re-engaged as the club continued into 1967, after initial success. The first events combined live music with light shows,avant-gardefilms and slide shows, and dance troupes.

Pink Floyd's tenure at UFO was short, because as their fame grew, they were able to play bigger venues for higher fees. Boyd protested that their increasing fame was largely due to the success of UFO, but the band's management wanted to move on and an agreement was made for just three more Floyd performances at UFO, at an increased fee.[citation needed]

Hopkins and Boyd had to cast around for a new "house band" for UFO. They settled on Soft Machine but also started booking other acts who were attracted by the club's reputation. Amongst them wereThe Incredible String Band,Arthur Brown,Tomorrow,andProcol Harum,the latter of which played there when "A Whiter Shade of Pale"was No 1 in the charts.[citation needed]

Were All Doomed!!!

An advertisement featuring theFlammarion engravingin the Feb 13–26 issue ofTheInternational Timesfor "UfOria! Festival of Love 10.30 till dawn" [sic] announced "feb.10 –the bonzo dog doodah band• flix–dali–bunuel•ginger johnsonafrican drums "as well as" feb 17 –Soft Machine•mark boyleprojections • movies • food • erogenius 3 + 4 ".

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat,consisting of Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, designed psychedelic posters to advertise events. Waymouth said, "We were trying to give a visual concept of what we were experiencing, which was like hallucinations."[1]The food was macrobiotic and included brown rice rissoles, vegetarian stuffed vine leaves and felafel, supplied byCraig Sams,who went on to co-found Whole Earth Foods and Green & Black's.[citation needed]

Jack Bracelin's (Fiveacres Lights) created some of the light shows with equipment that ranged from 16mm projection of early "art house"films (often projected sideways or projected into smoke) or 5 kW 'Panis' (effects projectors) borrowed from Samuelsons at Pinewood or Elstree film studios (or Strand Electric at Vauxhall) to overhead projectors with transparent trays borrowed from refrigerators and filled with Indian water, ink, beer etc.[citation needed]A favourite was to use 'Aldis' slide projectors with dual layer 2×2 glass specimen slides with basic designs created with wax crayons (drawn by Lou – the oft naked lady) and then various substances introduced with syringes – Indian inks, snot, semen – in fact anything of immiscible viscosities. Bubbles made by injecting air between the glass plates which were then squeezed (by a pair of long nose pliers – in time to the music) would send folks even further off their heads![citation needed]

After a sordid article published in theNews of the Worldon 30 July, the landlord told Joe Boyd the UFO could not continue at the Blarney.Brian Epsteinoffered the Champagne Lounge at hisSaville Theatrebut Boyd decided on the larger Roundhouse venue.[3]In October 1967 the UFO Club at the Roundhouse folded.[citation needed]

The UFO Club's success was its downfall – being too small to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. If a big name such asJeff Beckwas playing, UFO broke even, but the club usually lost money.

Billings

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Blarney Club

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Poster forPink Floydat the UFO club, 28 July 1967, by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

Roundhouse

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References

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  1. ^abRockin' in Time, p. 166.
  2. ^Boyd, Joe,White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s,Serpent's Tail, 2006.ISBN1-85242-910-0
  3. ^Povey, Glenn (2007).Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd.Mind Head Publishing.ISBN9780955462405.Retrieved5 January2017.
  4. ^abcdJones, Malcolm (2003).The Making of The Madcap Laughs(21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 27.
  5. ^abIT08 – 13 February 1967
  6. ^abJones, Malcolm (2003).The Making of The Madcap Laughs(21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 28.
  7. ^abcJones, Malcolm (2003).The Making of The Madcap Laughs(21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 29.
  8. ^Jones, Malcolm (2003).The Making of The Madcap Laughs(21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 30.

Further reading

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51°31′06″N0°07′55″W/ 51.518354°N 0.132073°W/51.518354; -0.132073

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