The end of an era. The last Macumba club will close. The final establishment of this chain of 23 nightclubs, located in Englos near Lille, will therefore close its doors after a final festive evening on the night of Saturday February 22 to Sunday February 23. The reasons for this closure, after 49 years, are not known but the bosses welcome this “ French institution, a refuge for dance lovers and a place of conviviality “. Obviously, it is impossible to think of Macumba nightclubs without mentioning the eponymous hit by Jean-Pierre Mader, which made all of France dance in 1985. On the occasion of this closure, the Toulouse singer wanted to react. To our colleagues from BFMTVthe 69-year-old artist speaks of “ an era that is ending » : « It’s a synonym for the 1980s that are going away ».
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“Clubs prescribing what would be on the radio”
Because if these Macumba clubs have a dated connotation today, they were the symbol of an era, as Jean-Pierre Mader recalls: “ These were big clubs which were quite prescriptive of what was going to be broadcast on the radio. There were a lot of resident DJs. They were also places where one could enter easily, unlike the big clubs of Paris where there was a doorman who filtered “. The 80s star remembers, through these nightclubs, “ a less anxious period ” Or ” people mixed » : « There was a friendly side, we could all get together and party, there was no social barrier, it was open to everyone ».
The one who had luck » to sing in several of the chain’s nightclubs reminds us that his big hit “Macumba”, sold more than 600,000 copies, did not promote clubs at the time. “ It would have been a stroke of genius, and a lot of money! Unfortunately, I didn’t have that idea. It’s a song that I wrote with my friend Richard Seff, we were looking for a place where we could locate this kind of migrant before her time. The news, unfortunately, has joined us » he remembers, having thought of the names “Mocambo” or “César Palace” before Richard Seff found this famous “Macumba”: “ As soon as we had the phrase, we finished the song very quickly ».
