Category: Italodisco

In the 1980s, Blackpool was something of a gay mecca; a little bit like Brighton – situated on the seaside, with a good assortment of gay bars and nightclubs. These towns were popular weekend spots that gay men flocked to. Flamingo 2001 was one of the big Blackpool clubs, which played up to the moment Hi-NRG, Italo and Euro Disco.

The club contributed a Hi-NRG chart to various publications like Gay Times and Gay News. The below is a Flamingo 2001 club chart, coupled with sales of the records from the local HMV record shop. This chart was published either in Gay Times or Him magazine (unfortunately I don’t know which one), and was published at some point in the Summer of 1988.

Although these charts mirrored the Record Mirror Hi-NRG charts to some extent, they were also an excellent alternative to the more predictable Record Mirror Hi-NRG charts, which seemed to be stuffed full of a certain London DJ and producer’s productions on his own record label.