La Herradura has lost its veteran discotheque Kasbah, which closed down at the beginning of last month, leaving those that frequented it over the decades, bereft.

All of the discos in the municipality have gone now: Al Club, El Mango, Coliseo, Sidi Pepe’s , Noa Noa, El Caribe, (later Ke) and La Guitarra (which was part of Hotel Mediterraneo, which was demolished to make way for the Paseo del Altillo). The only one that is still open in Almuñécar is Robert’s Top, but which is now a live-music pub. The very first was the Electric Balloon which opened and closed in the 60s and closed in the early 70s and was run by Philip Ashby!

Anyway, back to Discoteca Kasbah! It opened its doors for the first time in 1967 thanks to a foreign resident who financed it, making it one of the first in the municipality. It soon past on to several associates, local business people, amongst whom was Joaquín Barbero (19 at the time) who used to run the Chambao de Joaquín at the eastern end of La Herradura Bay.

The disco actually had a revolving dance floor; one of the first in Andalucia, illuminated by neon lights in imitation of the TV set for a popular music programme from way back when – a sort of Top of the Pops, called Aplauso.

The disco remained closed between 2015 and 2018 and it looked like it would remain that way but a youngster (30) called Rodrigo Ruiz reopened it, for what was destined to be its final leg. Rodrigo has managed other pubs, such as the Soho Café Copas and el Califa

As you can imagine, it’s last night was rammed; packed solid!

The building, which is presently owned by Vicente Barbero, is now being demolished and in its place will be an apartment block containing around five tourist flats.

(News/Noticias: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)