Middle Earth (club)

Middle Earth (formerly Electric Garden Club) was an influential hippie club in London, UK in the mid-to-late 1960s, following on from the UFO Club after it was closed down as a result of police pressure and the imprisonment of its founder John 'Hoppy' Hopkins.

Middle Earth started in a large cellar at 43 King Street, in Covent Garden, London. It was a competitor to the Roundhouse at Chalk Farm.

Nights at Middle Earth were normally hosted and arranged by the DJ and promoter Jeff Dexter. Groups that played there included Pink Floyd, The Who, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, David Bowie's folk trio Feathers, Fairport Convention and Jefferson Airplane, Eric Burdon and Captain Beefheart. The Byrds also played here twice with Gram Parsons. The main groups playing on a regular basis were Soft Machine, Tomorrow, Sam Gopal's Dream, Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrin Took, Social Deviants, the pre-Yes Mabel Greer's Toyshop and the Graham Bond Organization who was a constant visitor/performer. Others included The Exploding Galaxy dance group, and The Tribe of the Sacred Mushroom headed by Lin Darnton had performed a play based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

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