Middle Earth was second only to the pioneering club UFO as a late 60s counter-cultural hub. Located in Covent Garden – then a market rather than today’s tourist trap – Middle Earth opened in 1967 and quickly became famous for its light shows, dealers and occasional police raids.
But while its audiences were reportedly drawn from curious members of the mainstream as much as they were from the hippie underground, the club was also renowned for its ability to attract pioneering bands from both sides of the Atlantic, including The Soft Machine, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Fairport Convention and, later, Captain Beefheart and The Byrds.
Spinning the discs was former mod Jeff Dexter, whose move into the underground was precipitated by LSD. And it’s here that Middle Earth: The Soundtrack Of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967–1969 picks up with a three-CD collection of some of the music played until dawn.
While many of the names are familiar, a lot of the material isn’t. The grooving, third-eye soul of Brian Auger & The Trinity and Julie Driscoll’s A Kind Of Love- In was originally found on the B-side of This Wheel’s On Fire, while Denny Laine’s bucolic Too Much In Love questions his wisdom of leaving The Moody Blues.
Other curios include The Riot Squad, featuring David Bowie, with a sax-driven cover of The Velvet Underground’s I’m Waiting For My Man. The Yardbirds – featuring Jimmy Page, who played the club a week before future Led Zeppelin bandmate Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy – are represented by Drinking Muddy Water’s scuzz, while the utterly bonkers Garbage sums up the glorious, provocative chaos of The Deviants.
Among the big hitters are The Who’s evergreen Magic Bus and the proggy soul of Family’s A Good Friend Of Mine. An evening in with the lava lamp beckons.
Middle Earth: The Soundtrack Of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967–1969 is on sale now via Strawberry.
