Megatripolis was an underground London club-night created by Encyclopaedia Psychedelica/Evolution editor and founder of the Zippie movement Fraser Clark,[1] partner Sionaidh Craigen,[2] as well as a great many others.
[3] The club combined New Age ideology with Rave culture to create a vibrant, festival-like atmosphere presenting a wide variety of cross-cultural ideas and experiences.
The club first started at The Marquee in London when it was at 105 Charing Cross Road partly inspired by ideas and ideals coming out of the recession of the early nineties.
The club hosted a lecture by Terence McKenna on its opening night with DJs Sequenci, Tribal Energy (Jez Turner), Solar Quest and Mixmaster Morris and featured an "ambient space" in the foyer and a "smart bar" on the terrace which sold various herbal drinks.
Heaven was London's original gay-only nightclub, but had run non-gay (known as Pyramid) nights for many years, including clubs such as Rage, Earth, Spectrum and Land of Oz.
Megatripolis also promoted several large parties at Bagley's in Kings Cross and escalated its political agenda by renting an armoured car for the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill protest rally in July 1994.
A three-CD album representing the club's music was released in July 1996 on Funky Peace Productions 2000 featuring mixes by DJ regulars and packaged in hemp (tree-free) paper.
The rented premises under St.Pancras station were handed over to what was to become "Escape from Samsara", a club formed by some of the original Megatripolis crew which went on to run weekly Friday nights for 7 years at The Fridge in Brixton.
[5] Visits from speakers such as Allen Ginsberg, Terence McKenna, George Monbiot, Howard Marks and Ram Dass were common, part of Clark's 'parallel university' concept.
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 Zippie future.
In what was seen as very progressive at the time, a live video interview with Arthur C Clarke was conducted from his home in Sri Lanka[6] on a portable satellite phone system (whose invention he was probably responsible for).
He was later kidnapped by the Zippie Soundsystem and forced to release a statement condemning the UK Prime Minister John Major and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which famously banned outdoor parties with music that included an "emission of a succession of repetitive beats".
Well-known people who attended the club as visitors included Malcolm McLaren, Lynne Franks, The Pet Shop Boys, Björk, Heather Small, and Richard Branson.