The following are article I've scanned in from a copy of The History of Rock (Issue 66) published in 1983. It is written by John Platt.

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The story of the clubs and musical events associated with the underground scene in London is, in many ways, the evolution of the underground itself - the two are inextricably bound up with each other. By common agreement, the first public manifestation of the phenomenon was the International Poetry Festival at the Albert Hall in June 1965, which brought together poets from the English alternative arts scene, like Pete Brown, and Americans such as Allen Ginsberg. The audience that day was full of strangely clad figures, bedecked with flowers and carrying joss-sticks - hippies were making their first public appearance in the UK,

Hazy Sunday afternoons
A number of the Americans who helped organise the event remained in London and became prime movers on the scene. One was Steve Stollman, brother of the owner of the avant-garde ESP label in New York. In February 1966 he organised the first of a series of events known as 'Spontaneous Underground', which were held at the Marquee Club on Sunday afternoons. In retrospect these events seem oddly
parochial; decidedly naive and having more in common with early Sixties beatnik happenings than anything else; they were, nonetheless. the first link in the chain that led to the UFO club and beyond, The early ones featured people like Cream lyricist Pete Brown performing conjuring tricks, and strange avant-garde orchestras that utilised transistor radios, not to mention a girl playing a Bach fugue accompanied by African drummers, Then in March, Spontaneous Underground was enlivened by the appearance of an unknown band dubbed the Pink Floyd Sound. They were loud, weird and unique - and they fitted perfectly.

Over the weeks at the Marquee things developed, plans were hatched and the characters who were to become major in the underground - John Hopkins, Miles (who ran Indica Books), Andrew King and Pete Jenner (who became the Floyd's managers) and Joe Boyd - all came together. The scene shifted from the Marquee to the London Free School in Notting Hill Gate, a community self-help establishment run primarily by 'Hoppy' (as Hopkins was universally known. You can check out Hoppy's website here). One of its early classes was the Sound/Light Workshop, at which Pink Floyd often provided music. The group soon became the centre of interest, and All Saints Hall in Powis Square was swamped every week. The stage was set for something new and exciting involving all the various components: lights, films, dance and music. The first big event of this 'new' underground was a party to launch International Times (England's first underground paper and the brainchild of Miles and Hoppy), held at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm on 15 October 1966.

Originally an engine shed, the Roundhouse had been taken over by the Gilbey's Gin concern, which had installed a balcony that stood on wooden pillars. The building had a marvellous, almost romantic atmosphere - it was a monument to nineteenth-century industrial design. Unfortunately it was cold, had almost no lighting, just two lavatories and the only entrance was via an ancient, steep and extremely narrow staircase. Nonetheless the IT party was a memorable event. Some 2000 people turned up and were greeted by Miles handing out sugarcubes (which turned out not to be of the LSD-coated variety, despite legend to the contrary). What took place set the style for later events - people in bizarre fancy dress rolling in huge jellies, dancing, revelling, tripping and watching films; a Bacchanal of the first order. Paul McCartney showed up dressed as an Arab, the Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni was there taking a break from shooting Blow Up and Marianne Faithfull, wearing a nun's habit, won the prize for the 'shortest/barest' costume. Music was provided not only by Pink Floyd but also Soft Machine, whose instrumentation included a motorcycle with a contact mike attached to the cylinder head - the bike was revved up from time to time to add to the group's euphonious wailing. Pink Floyd, meanwhile, brought with them the light show they had been using at the Free School - oil dropped on photographic slides pulsated in time with music. Within months that light show was to seem incredibly primitive, but few people had seen one before and the Roundhouse audience was transfixed. Musically the Floyd played one of their best sets, even though the power short-circuited in the middle of 'Interstellar Overdrive'.

The IT party was also the first underground event to garner national press coverage; The Sunday Times ran a story on it, including an interview with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters. Over the next few months, further one-off events along the lines of the party took place. Some, like 'Psychodelphia Versus Ian Smith', were held at the Roundhouse; others, like the even more bizarrely-named 'Freak Out Ethel', were held elsewhere. However, none of them quite captured the magic of the IT party, especially as many (the 'New Years Eve All Night Rave' at the Roundhouse, for example) were obviously commercially-motivated ventures. But by the end of the year, the underground had found a new centre - at UFO, the Friday night club founded by Hoppy (aided and abetted by Joe Boyd and Miles) that had grown out of the Free School.

UFO was located in an Irish dancehall called the Blarney Club in the basement of 31 Tottenham Court Road, opposite the Dominion Theatre, and opened on 23 December 1966. At first, the club was titled 'UFO Presents Night Tripper'; the 'Night' part was relevant as UFO always hosted all-night events, a factor that put it out of the reach of many hippies, especially young ones and those with day-jobs.

The UFO legend has grown over the years and, as Roger Waters has said, 'It's got rosier with age, but there is a germ of truth in it.' So what actually happened there? It certainly wasn't just a club in the entertainment sense; it was a genuine meeting/market place for the underground. For the first couple of months virtually everyone knew everyone else who was packed inside and sniffed the overpowering aroma of sweat and dope. Deals were made and projects planned. One could buy hippie paraphernalia from the 'head' shop or a frilly shirt from John Pearce's Granny Takes A Trip stall (yet to open their boutique on the Kings Road, seen here). Later on, more intense activities took place in backrooms, like black activist Michael X relieving liberals of 'conscience' money for one of his schemes or Michael Henshaw (accountant to the underground and the 'responsible' face of UFO) trying to arrange bail for someone. It was a remarkably relaxed environment, in which the likes of Mick Jagger or John Lennon could sit all night without being pestered for autographs.

And then there was the entertainment itself, with which UFO refined the previous multimedia attempts into a heady brew that has never been equalled. Some nights it did bear more relation to the early Sixties - tired poets reading their works to the backing of jazz combos - but generally, especially when Pink Floyd played, it was magic. When UFO started Hoppy had given the Floyd the contract to provide music and lights at the club. Although the group didn't play at UFO every week, it's fair to say that the club was home base for the band and it always gave them a chance to play for an audience that understood and loved their music.

Helter Skelter
UFO also attracted many of the new bands who were springing up in the wake of the Floyd. Some went on to some degree of fame and fortune, notably Soft Machine, perhaps the most intellectual of them all. Others included Arthur Brown (he of the flaming head-dress), the Purple Gang (who recorded 'Granny Takes A Trip', a UFO anthem), Tomorrow (featuring singer Keith West, future Yes guitarist Steve Howe and a great line in theatrics) and Procul Harum, who played at UFO the week their 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' went to Number 1.

Not everyone thought that UFO - or the underground in general - was wonderful, however. There was increasingly abusive coverage in the press, and at the beginning of April 1967 the police raided the offices of IT in a calculated attempt to close the paper down. In order to raise money a benefit event was put together. 'The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream', as it was called, took place at Alexandra Palace on 29 April and it turned out to be the biggest single underground event - though it is a curious paradox that something that attracted over 10,000 people could be described as 'underground'. This immense crowd turned up to watch the 41 bands, listen to poetry, see films and ride the helter-skelter. There were two stages with bands playing simultaneously, which with the various light shows was almost too much to take in. Soft Machine were in top form - Kevin Ayers in cowboy hat surmounted by aeroplane wings, Daevid Allen in miner's helmet - but once again it was Pink Floyd who stole the show, coming on as the first light of dawn poured through the high windows, their eerie sounds echoing around the building. In retrospect, the Technicolor Dream was not only the biggest and best underground event but also the last genuine one (although the Xmas on Earth show that Decemeber should also be mentioned).

Back at UFO things were starting to go awry; basically it was too small to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. The original 'freaks' and hippies had been largely displaced by unwelcome newcomers; at best, these were 'weekend hippies', at worst they were drunken sailors (who took the idea of 'free love' a little too literally) or hippie-bashing skinheads.

The crunch came in June, when Hoppy was imprisoned for drug offences. Police pressure on the club increased in the following weeks, resulting in the landlords revoking the lease. The club moved into the Roundhouse but, despite the fact that the building was still almost derelict, the rent was exorbitant. When a big name like Eric Burdon or Jeff Beck was playing, UFO broke even, but the club more often lost money. The Roundhouse may have been a good place for special events, but the atmosphere of the club evaporated in the cold emptiness of the building. UFO stuck it out until October and then folded - for many people it was the end of an era.

Part-time hippies
That summer of 1967 had represented the height, in public terms, of the new alternative culture; by the autumn it had sunk, very nearly without trace. From being the property of a committed minority the previous winter, it had spread with remarkable speed throughout the country, falling prey to over-commercialisation; neck-bells tinkled in high streets across the country and by September flower power had become a national joke. The music suffered too. Any band that had been remotely kaftan-and-bell-oriented was in danger of being laughed off stage.

Pockets of resistance held out, however, and a few clubs continued something approximating to a UFO style. UFO had not been the only club with an underground atmosphere and clientele at the time, but the others were without exception more overtly commercial enterprises. One of the best was Happening 44, located at 44 Gerrard Street in Soho and run by Jack Bracelin, who had been part of the Free School Light/Sound workshop where he had developed his own light show. The Social Deviants (with Mick Farren) was virtually Happening 44's houseband.

Better-known than Happening 44, however, was Middle Earth in Covent Garden. Middle Earth had evolved from the Electric Garden which had opened a few months after UFO but, despite interesting bills, had never taken off. Yoko Ono was supposed to have sensed 'bad vibrations' on the opening night- possibly because the club was run by two East End gangsters. After a couple of months it closed and then reopened as Middle Earth. It was still run on commercial lines but the new owners wisely employed hippies as organisers of the club, notably Dave Howson, who had been one of the organisers of the Technicolor Dream'. While UFO was still in operation, Middle Earth diplomatically closed on Friday nights.

After the demise of UFO, however, Middle Earth took over as the main underground music club. The club's policy was, in some ways, less adventurous than that of UFO, but their more commercial nature meant they were able to book a lot of big-name artists, especially from the United States; over the following year Tim Buckley, Captain Beefheart, the Byrds and even the Ike and Tina Turner Revue played in Covent Garden. Also, like UFO, Middle Earth tried out the Roundhouse for a few gigs, including the major coup of putting on Jefferson Airplane and the Doors in September 1968. Shortly after, however, the club folded, another victim of dwindling finances and police pressure. Arguably, Middle Earth was the last genuine underground club, although mention should be made of the Temple, which in 1969 operated out of the basement of the old Flamingo Club in Wardour Street. The Temple was probably the seediest rock venue London has ever had and attracted a clientele to match its sordid decor: acid casualties, speed freaks, shysters and thieves.

By 1969, the underground - superficially, at least- had more adherents than ever before; in reality, however, it simply meant there were more people (particularly in the suburbs) with long hair who took LSD. Any connection they may have had with the early UFO crowd was accidental and their meeting places - the Midnight Court at the Lyceum (run by Mecca) and Implosion at the Roundhouse -lie outside this history.

The underground clubs and events were, of course, a product of their time and thus can never be duplicated. However, the clubs and events arranged by Steve Strange in the early Eighties, with their emphasis on performance art and esoteric atmosphere, resurrected some of the ideas, if not the spirit, of UFO.