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The UFO Club was a famous but shortlived club in London during the 1960s, venue of performances by many of the top bands of the day.It was founded by John Hopkins (Hoppy) in an Irish dancehall called the "Blarney Club" in the basement of 31 Tottenham Court Road, opposite the Dominion Theatre. It opened on December 23 1966. At first, the club was called "UFO Presents Night Tripper", the word "Night" indicating the gigs were always all-nighter events. Many UK Underground artists were featured such as Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd who had a contract to provide the lights and sounds. UFO also attracted many of the new bands notably Soft Machine, Arthur Brown; Tomorrow and Procul Harum, who played there when A Whiter Shade Of Pale was No 1 in the charts.
Typically the establishment was not happy and tried to close UFO down. In addition to police action, the UFO Club’s success was its downfall - being too small to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. The crunch came in June 1967, when Hopkins was imprisoned for drug offences.
Police pressure on the club increased in the following weeks, and the landlords caved in to authoritarian pressure and revoked the lease. The club moved into the Roundhouse for a few months but, despite the building beingl almost derelict, the rent was exorbitant. 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.
