The Summer Of Love in 1967 was all hippies, flower power and psychedelia. In that same year a new club opened in Covent Garden, London and called itself Middle Earth after a suggestion from the British DJ John Peel who became a compère and DJ at the club. New bands and existing names rushed to appear there. Some of the lesser known acts soon became first division names. There were names such as Soft Machine, Tomorrow (The In-Crowd), David Bowie (The Riot Squad), Yes, The Incredible String Band, Ten Years After, and Free who got early exposure at Middle Earth. Bigger names included the likes of Traffic, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, The Pretty Things and The Yardbirds. Even American acts made the trip across the Atlantic to join in the fun like Captain Beefheart, The Byrds, The Fugs, and Jefferson Airplane. But the scene did not last long almost dying as quickly as the flowers in flower power, but it was a very important place in the developing music of the era. The club actually shut in March 1969.
Cherry Red have gathered together 64 tracks on 3 CDs capturing almost 4 hours of music recorded by the acts that appeared at the club. These are not live recordings of appearances at Middle Earth but a collection of the best music from those that appeared there. Accompanying the CDs is a 40 page booklet with information about each track and an excellent history and description of the club, and the times by Jon Newey, along with an interview Newey had with Jeff Dexter another DJ at Middle Earth.
Music on the CD comes from not only those mentioned above but also Family, Ten Years After, The Electric Prunes, The Small Faces, Canned Heat, Fairport Convention. And many more.
Middle Earth - The Soundtrack of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967-1969 is such a listenable compilation I can not recommend it enough.
You can hear some tracks from the collection in The Groove Yard visit 158
For a full track listing and other information go to the Cherry Red Records website.