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| Andy in Naples |
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| Click on the picture to enlarge |
Andy Mac arrived to play at The Flamingo Club,
on the Nato Base, Afsouth, Naples, Italy. Most consider 1977
to be the real 'Disco' era with songs like;
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Andy arrived on the 1st 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. Andy's first impression was not of the club but that
the Italian's seemed to drive with one hand firmly on the car horn and totally ignored 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 passengers seat
of the first car which drove off, and the line of cars moved up one. 10 minutes later (or it could have been 5 he
wasn't exactly timing it!) the car would arrive back at the front of the line and the young lady would alight and get
in to the next car behind and drive 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 The
Flamingo Club was (and still is) a ratings club serving all Nato Forces, the building is over 2 floors with a marble
stepped entrance to a double glass doored lobby. On the ground floor there are 2 bars, a restaurant and the disco room
with bar. Upstairs a large ballroom and bar with a stage and dressing rooms. Also attached to the side of the building is
a 10 pin bowling alley.
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| DJ's Andy Mac and Starchild |
For a period of time during 1979 often Andy would be
joined on stage by another DJ, Tom Holden. Tom liked to work under the name of 'Starchild' but he was infact
in the US Military.
1979
Click on each song to play
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| Napoli |
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Andy was only contracted to play for 2 months! However within the first month he
was summoned to the club managers office for a meeting, to his horror he was told they were ripping up his contract! To
his delight though, he was asked if he would stay on indefinately, to which he agreed. And apart from a short period
during 1979, when he visited the US, and a few months in 1980, he worked at The Flamingo Club until 1981.
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| Andy Mac only worked off base a couple of times this is a picture of one of those times |
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Earthquake
November 1980 Andy found himself caught up in the major earthquake that hit
southern Italy. Epicentred on a small town called Eboli, 50 miles south of Naples it measured 6.9 on the Richter scale it
killed 2,735 people and injured many more. Many of the older buildings in Naples collapsed and for weeks after, large parts
of the population slept on the streets in fear of going back into their homes. For some time Andy's family back in
the UK had no news of him as all communications had been cut off. Unaware of the concern back home, no doubt brought on by
the media coverage, he carried on as if nothing had happened!
Andy recalls, "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 begin, quickly growing louder and louder, soon it overpowered the sound track.
I remember someone
shouting 'Earthquake!' as everything started shaking, the movie stopped and everyone jumped up and ran outside.
Still feeling awful I sat on a small wall outside of the cinema and looked at the streetlamps which seemed to
be waving backwards and forwards in the most extraordinary way, and then to my amazement the wall moved! That made me jump!
A young lady standing next to me asked, 'What was that?' I remember looking at her and with equal stupidity said,
'I don't know, but I am going for a beer'
And that is exactly what I did!"
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