Megatripolis
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Megatripolis was an innovative, underground London nightclub created by Encyclopaedia Psychedelica editor and founding Zippie Fraser Clark[1] with Sionaidh Craigen, Marcus Pennell, the Scooby Doobies, other members of the Evolution Collective, and Bugsy and JJ of Dream Records. The intention was to combine New Age ideology with Rave culture and create a vibrant, festival-like atmosphere where people would be confronted by cross-cultural ideas and experiences at every turn.
This venue proved visible and newsworthy to the general public, although some reporting of the club suggested a dichotomy between an avowed downplay of psychedelic substances and perceptions of substance use by some club-goers. [2] In any event, the club provided a meeting place of like-minded people and served as a platform for social awareness and activism as well as more traditional nightclub fare.
Evenings combined lectures and workshops with live musical performances and DJing playing mostly progressive house accompanied by intense video imagery and live theatre. It started at The Marquee club in Charing Cross Road as a collaboration with Tribal Energy in June 1993 but the Megatripolis crew were thrown out of the venue eight weeks later. After a practice run at the Stanstead Tree Party in September 1993 they consolidated into a bigger crew with much bigger ideas. Heaven nightclub in the cathedral-like arches and winding passages under Charing Cross Station became home to Megatripolis in October 1993 hosting visits from speakers such as Allen Ginsberg, Terence McKenna, George Monbiot, Howard Marks and Ram Dass and DJs including Colin Dale, Alex Paterson, Paul Oakenfold, Andrew Weatherall and Mr C with residents Darius and Nick Sequenci.
The usual bouncers were supplemented by fluorescent jacket-clad minders called the Megatripolice, and new-age style stalls occupied the central hallway selling non-alcoholic energy drinks, body jewellery, alternative "small press" comics and magazines such as the short-lived, but influential Head Magazine, as well as T-shirts and other clothing. Also notable were early demonstrations of the World Wide Web at a time when most patrons were just beginning to be aware of what was then termed cyberculture, something seen as an important, if not defining, part of the Zippy future. Underground bulletin boards such as London's pHreak hosted live "cyber events" from the club. There was a live interview with Arthur C Clarke via satellite from his home in Sri Lanka. Ram Dass lectured the assembled, and Alan Ginsberg read them poetry. Inner-space psychonaut Terence McKenna explained how mankind came from the stars.
Heaven was London's original gay-only nightclub, but had run non-gay (known as Pyramid) nights for many years. The Megatripolis 'Festival in a box' on Thursday nights was mixed and attracted a diverse patronage from a wide age range, many of whom would not otherwise have considered going clubbing. By early 1994 it had also taken over the adjoining Sound Shaft nightclub and turned it into an ambient space with frequent all-night sets by Mixmaster Morris - the club's fourth separate sound stage. DJ Andrea Parker got her reputation for playing atmospheric music laden with sound effects spread and played along to films in the chill-out rooms of Megatripolis[3]
Megatripolis also put on several massive parties at Bagley's in Kings Cross and escalated its political agenda by renting a small tank to take on the Criminal Justice Bill protest rally in July 1994. The club ran until New Year 1995 when internal pressures split it apart. It continued with a diminished agenda until October 1996. An album was released featuring mixes by DJ regulars.
[edit] Megatripolis West
An offshoot of the club was started by Fraser Clark and others, in San Francisco in late 1994. It ran for five consecutive weeks before closing.
The 6th was a "launch rave" for far-sighted publishers Ronin Press for Timothy Leary's latest book Chaos And Cyber Culture. In true "illegal UK rave" tradition, patrons had to check in at a nearby burger joint to be given the event's location, and the highest point (apart form the "Criminal Justice Balls" internet-invasion of the UK, initiated by Tim at the club) was when Leary jammed & jazz-skatted hilariously and wittily with famous Bay Area musician Marunga (?). Video of this unique event exists somewhere.
Interestingly, Tim Leary's posthumous The Fugitive Philosopher (also published by Ronin in September 2007) has a preface by Fraser Clark, the original title of which, in his online magazine the UP![1], was Timothy Leary Was A Saint Who Will Be Remembered & Celebrated Long After Jesus, Mohamed and Elvis Are Forgotten
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Raynolds, Simon "Energy Flash", page 287 Picardor 1998
- ^ BBC Two "yoof" DEF II news programme Reportage, Reportage on Megatripolis
- ^ Disco divas turn the tables, Guardian, 24 August 1999
