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Andy Mac at The Flamingo Club, on the NATO base, Afsouth, Naples, Italy.
Most DJs of the time consider 1977 and 1978 to be the real 'Disco' era.
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Andy Mac arrived in Naples on the 1st of January 1977 and was met by his agent who showed him around the NATO Base and the Flamingo Club where he would be working, he was to start work on the Wednesday evening and play 4 nights a week from 9.00pm until 2.00am.
However, Andy's first impression of driving the Neapolitan way was that the Italian's seemed to drive with one hand firmly on the car horn, totally ignoring most traffic signals. The hotel he was staying in was located on a main road and the window to his room overlooked a line of parked cars.
Nothing strange in that you might think, but on closer inspection he could see a young lady getting in to the passenger’s seat of the first car in the queue which promptly drove off, and the line of cars moved up one. A full 10 minutes later the car would arrive back at the front of the line and the woman would alight and get in to the next car in line, which drove away... and then.... the cars would all move up one! Andy Mac had seen his first ‘Lady of The Street’ and she was doing a roaring trade!
The Flamingo Club in 1977 was a ratings club on the Afsouth NATO Base, built over 2 floors with a marble
stepped entrance to a double glass doored lobby. While Andy worked there he helped organise many special events and often worked alongside other acts, some well-known, some not so well known; The Detroit Emeralds, Ben E King, The Passengers, Love Machine, Billy Preston & Syreeta
With the end of the cold war NATO reduced its presents throughout Europe and
the base was closed December 2012.
During 1979 Andy Mac would be joined on stage by another
DJ, Thom Holden. Thom (pronounced Tom) liked to work under the name of 'Starchild' but he was infact
in the US Military.
Interestingly Andy Mac and Thom ‘Starchild’ Holden reconnected with each other in September 2011, 32 years later!!
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In 1977 Andy Mac was contracted to play for 2 months! Within the first month he was summoned to the club managers office for a meeting, and to his horror he was told they were ripping up his contract! To his delight though, he was asked if he would stay on indefinitely, to which he readily agreed. Apart from a short period during 1979, when he visited the USA, and a few months in 1980, he worked at The Flamingo Club until 1981.
In November 1980 Andy Mac found himself caught up in the major earthquake that hit southern Italy. The epicentre was a small town called Eboli, 50 miles south of Naples it measured 6.9 on the Richter scale killing 2,735 people, and injuring many more. Older buildings in Naples collapsed and for weeks after the quake, large parts of the population slept on the streets in fear of going back to their homes. For some time, Andy's family in the UK had no news of him as all communications with the area had been cut off. Unaware
of the concern back home he carried on as if nothing had happened! "The evening of the earthquake I was not working and although I was feeling pretty rough having had Flu for most of the week, I went to watch a movie at the cinema on the local US Navy Base called NSA. Actually I can't remember what movie it was but I do remember this low rumbling noise began,
quickly growing louder and louder, soon it overpowered the sound track of the movie. and everyone jumped up and ran outside. seemed to be waving backwards and forwards in the most extraordinary way, and then to my amazement the wall
moved! And that made me jump! I recall looking at her, and with equal stupidity said, 'I don't
know, but I am going for a beer' |
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