The UFO Club was a famous but short-lived UK underground club in London during the 1960s. It was founded by Joe Boyd and John 'Hoppy' Hopkins 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 was because Boyd and Hopkins could not decide on "UFO" or "Nite Tripper" as a name for their club. Eventually they settled on "UFO" 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.
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.
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." 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.
Shows
Blarney Club
1966
December 23, 1966 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Warhol movies, Soft Machine; Pink Floyd, Anger movies, Heating warm, IT god)
December 30, 1966 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Warhol movies, Soft Machine; Pink Floyd, Anger movies, Heating warm, IT god)
1967
January 13, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, Marilyn Monroe movie, The Sun Trolley, Technicolor strobe, Fiveacre slides, Karate)
January 20, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, Anger movie)
January 27, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (AMM Music, Pink Floyd, Five Acre Light, Flight of the Aerogenius Chpt 1, International Times, IT Girl Beauty Contest)
February 3, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine, Brown's Poetry, Flight of the Aerogenius Chpt 2, Bruce Connor Movies)
February 10, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Ginger Johnson, African Drums, flix – Dali – Bunuel, WC Fields)
February 17, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine, Indian Music, Disney Cartoons, Mark Boyle Projections, Feature Movie, 'erogenius 3 + 4')
February 24, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, Brothers Grimm)
March 3, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine, Pink Floyd)
March 10, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd)
March 17, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (CLOSED)
March 24, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine)
March 31, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Pink Alberts, 'spot the fuzz contest')
April 7, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine)
April 14, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Arthur Brown, Social Deviants, Special: the fuzz)
April 21, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd)
April 28, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Tomorrow, The Purple Gang)
(29/30 Apr: 14-Hour Technicolor Dream at the Alexandra Palace)
May 5, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Soft Machine, Arthur Brown)
May 12, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (The Graham Bond Organisation, Procol Harum)
May 19, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Tomorrow, Arthur Brown, The People Show)
May 26, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (The Move, The Knack)
June 2, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Tales of Ollin dance group, Hydrogen Jukebox, Sun Trolley)
June 9, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Procol Harum, The Smoke, Sun Trolley)
June 10, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd)
June 16, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, The People Blues Band)
June 23, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Liverpool Love Festival, The Trip)
June 30, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Tomorrow, The Knack, Dead Sea Fruit)
July 7, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Denny Laine, The Pretty Things)
July 14, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Arthur Brown, Alexis Korner, Victor Brox)
July 21, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Tomorrow, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band)
July 28, 1967 UFO, The Blarney Club, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Shiva's Children, CIA v UFO)
After a sordid article published in the News of the World on 30 July, the landlord told Joe Boyd that 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.
Roundhouse
August 4, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Eric Burdon & The New Animals, Family, The Hydrogen Juke Box)
August 11, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Tomorrow)
August 18, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Arthur Brown, The Incredible String Band)
September 1-2, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Pink Floyd, (1st) Tomorrow, (2nd) The Move, Soft Machine, Denny Laine)
September 8, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Eric Burdon & The New Animals, Aynsley Dunbar)
September 15, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Soft Machine, Family)
September 22, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Dantalian's Chariot, Zoot Money & His Light Show, The Social Deviants, The Exploding Galaxy)
September 29, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (Jeff Beck, Ten Years After, Mark Boyle's New Sensual Laboratory, Contessa Veronica)
October 6, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (CANCELLED. Denny Laine, The Knack)
October 13, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (CANCELLED. Soft Machine, Fairport Convention)
October 20, 1967 UFO, Roundhouse, London, ENG (CANCELLED. Vanilla Fudge)