UFO Club

The UFO Club (pronounced "you-foe") was a short-lived part of the British counter-culture scene in London during the 1960s. The club was established by Joe Boyd and John "Hoppy" Hopkins and featured light shows, poetry readings, well-known rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, avant-garde art by Yoko Ono, as well as local house bands such as Pink Floyd, and Soft Machine.[1]

UFOria

History

The UFO Club was founded by John Hopkins (usually known as "Hoppy") and Joe Boyd in an Irish dancehall called the "Blarney Club" in the basement of 31 Tottenham Court Road, under the Gala Berkeley Cinema. It opened on 23 December 1966. Initially the club was advertised as "UFO Presents Nite Tripper". This had been because Boyd and Hopkins could not decide on "UFO" or "Nite Tripper" as a name for their club.[2] Eventually they settled on "UFO".

Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were booked for the first two Fridays, and then re-engaged as the club carried on into 1967 after its initial success. Initial events combined live music with light shows, avant garde films and slide shows, and dance troupes.

Pink Floyd's tenure at UFO was a short run. 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.

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 were The Incredible String Band, Arthur Brown, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum, who played there when "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was No 1 in the charts.

Were All Doomed!!!

An advertisement featuring the Flammarion engraving in the Feb 13–26 issue of The International Times for "UfOria! Festival of Love 10.30 till dawn" [sic] announced "feb.10 – the bonzo dog doodah band • flix–dali–bunuel • ginger johnson african drums" as well as "feb 17 – Soft Machine • mark boyle projections • movies • food • erogenius 3 + 4".

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, consisting of Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, designed psychedelic posters to advertise events. Waymouth stated "We were trying to give a visual concept of what we were experiencing, which was like hallucinations."[3] The food was macrobiotic and included brown rice rissoles, vegetarian stuffed vine leaves and felafel, supplied by Craig Sams, who went on to co-found Whole Earth Foods and Green & Black's.

Jack Bracelin's (Fiveacres Lights) created some of the light shows with equipment which ranged from 16mm projection of what we would now call 'art house' films (often projected sideways or projected into smoke) or 5 kW 'Pani's' (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 water/indian ink/beer/whatever. 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 imiscible 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!

The UFO Club's success was its downfall – being too small to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. If a big name such as Jeff Beck was playing, UFO broke even, but the club usually lost money. In October 1967 the UFO Club at the Roundhouse folded.

Trivia

The hard rock band UFO is named after this club.

UFO Club billings

Blarney Club
Poster for Pink Floyd at the UFO club, 28 July 1967, by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

After a sordid article published in the News of the World on 30 July, the landlord told Joe Boyd the UFO could not continue at the Blarney. Brian Epstein offered the Champagne Lounge at his Saville Theatre but Boyd decided on the larger Roundhouse venue.[9]

Roundhouse

References
  1. Rockin' in Time, p. 166.
  2. Boyd, Joe, White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s, Serpent's Tail, 2006. ISBN 1-85242-910-0
  3. Rockin' in Time, p. 166.
  4. Jones, Malcolm (2003). "The Making of The Madcap Laughs" (21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 27. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  5. IT08 – 13 February 1967
  6. IT08 – 13 February 1967
  7. Jones, Malcolm (2003). "The Making of The Madcap Laughs" (21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 28. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  8. Jones, Malcolm (2003). "The Making of The Madcap Laughs" (21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 29. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  9. Povey, Glenn (2007). Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Mind Head Publishing. ISBN 9780955462405. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  10. Jones, Malcolm (2003). "The Making of The Madcap Laughs" (21st Anniversary ed.). Brain Damage. p. 30. Missing or empty |url= (help)

Further reading
  • Hopkins, John, FROM THE HIP – Photographs by JOHN "HOPPY" HOPKINS in the 1960–66, DAMIANI. 2008. ISBN 978-88-6208-018-7
  • Boyd, Joe, White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s, Serpent's Tail. 2007. ISBN 978-1-85242-489-3
  • Miles, Barry: In the Sixties. (London 2002)
  • Green, Jonathon: Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1961–73 (London 1998)
  • Saunders, William Jimi Hendrix London Roaring Forties Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-9843165-1-9
  • Joe Beard's biography of The Purple Gang – Taking the Purple – contains many references to UFO. Available in print ISBN 978-0-9928671-0-2 or online in Kindle format ISBN 978-0-9928671-1-9

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