The UFO club was a secret music hub established in the 1960s and was located underneath 31 Tottenham Court Rd. Above the underground club "on the ground level there was a cinema (opened in 1913 as the Carlton, and the Berkeley when it closed in 1976)"(1). the club was created by John Hopkins and Joe Boyd and became one of London's first psychedelic and LSD driven music venue. the club hosted many "gigs by a number of up-and-coming experimental music groups during the time"(2), such as Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown and Soft Machine. Because of constant police brutality, UFO club eventually had to move, and it relocated to the Roundhouse where it lasted for a few more months but then had to shut down October 1967.

(1). Shots, KM's Live Music. "London Lost Music Venues: Rock Music 07 - UFO Club."

(2). Bennett, Andy, and Richard A. Peterson. Music Scenes. Pg, 207.

The Hippie population and the youth living in London during the swinging sixties had a much more care-free lifestyle then the generation prior to them. This along with the fear of nuclear armament and its potential destruction has driven the Hippie population to live the most fun lives they could. "[they had come] seeking to discover what we had all heard; the LSD would open up new worlds of perception previously unknown"(3). LSD and other forms of narcotics were taken as a means of escape from the rest of the world. They take them to transform themselves into more holistic, aware and enlightened human beings and they tried to spread this influence onto others, so they could experience it(4). Hubs like the UFO club gathering areas where many could gather and take drugs as a means of escape and feel its effects. Band members such as in Pink Floyd were instigators that spread the usage of LSD and other drugs. Many musicians began using drugs and as they grew more popular, playing in clubs like UFO club, their fans wanted to follow in their footsteps and to some degree be like them. "Crowds [would] hover around [them] as though in awe or even worship"(5). UFO club as musical hub allowed thousands of hippies to gather in secret so they could live the life that they wanted to live, whether with drugs or not, and it acted as a place where they could share ideas and thoughts on the rest of the world.

(3). Moretta, John. 2017. The Hippies. Pg, 57.

(4). Moretta, John. 2017. The Hippies, Pg 57.

(5). Roberts, Andy, and Susan J. Blackmore. Albion Dreaming. Pg 21.

Shots, KM's Live Music. "London Lost Music Venues: Rock Music 07 - UFO Club." Flickr. March 11, 2011. Accessed March 29, 2019. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kmlivemusic/5517147568.

Bennett, Andy, and Richard A. Peterson. Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004.

Moretta, John. The Hippies: A 1960s History. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017. https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat00778a&AN=bu.b3056187&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Roberts, Andy, and Susan J. Blackmore. Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2012.

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 20 (Spring 2006): 187-224.

Nash, David, William Gibson, and John Wolffe. "Towards the Post-Secular City? London since the 1960s." Journal of Religious History, no. 4 (2017): 532. doi:10.1111/1467-9809.12447.

Poynor, Rick. "A Brief History of Time." Creative Review 26, no. 2 (July 2006): 54–55. https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=505160134&site=eds-live&scope=site.