Middle-aged clubbers will return to Dundee and Perth this weekend for a play inspired by the legendary Rhumba Club.
Better Days has been created by successful playwright and screenwriter Ben Tagoe, who spent his first 20 years in Perth.
The 70-minute show is performed by up-and-coming actor George Martin from East Yorkshire.
It tells the story of the remarkable early 1990s cultural shift that saw previously violent football hooligans turn to the loved-up acid house scene.
The crowdfunded production is currently touring across the UK and will conclude this weekend at Perth and Dundee, where former residents are due to return to rekindle their youth.
Ben, 47, says the show is inspired by his days at the Rhumba Club, which was held in Perth at Roxanne’s and the Ice Factory, and Fat Sams in Dundee.
“The Rhumba Club was an institution,” he said. “It was a phenomenal time and people have amazing memories and I have tried to recapture the music and spirit of it.
“It is a play but it has that clubbing element too.
“People I used to go to the club with are flying back to Scotland to see it.
“It will reconnect people who have a lot of memories.”
In this feature Ben discusses his clubbing days in Perth, how music blunted hooliganism and reveals names of some of those who will be back this weekend.
Seaman and Oakenfold at Tayside ‘institution’
Ben grew up in Tulloch and Craigie, where his parents Seth, a retired health visitor, and Fiona still live.
His first clubbing experience came in Dundee when he was 16, by which point house music was all the rage and the Rhumba Club was up and running in both of Tayside’s cities.
The night was set up by Scott ‘Zammo’ Simpson in 1991 at Roxanne’s, which burnt down in August 1992.
From then its Perth home was the Ice Factory and Wayne Dunbar also launched it in Dundee at Fat Sams.
“It was a real Tayside institution,” Ben recalled.
“All the top DJs, including Dave Seaman and Paul Oakenfold, came to the Rhumba Club.”
Friendships still going strong 30 years later
The early 1990s was a magical era, Ben recalls.
“That was my entry to clubland and I have made lifelong friends in Perth and Dundee from that,” he said.
“It was just an amazing time.
“Football violence had been a huge thing but then everybody became friends on the dancefloor – to a large extent
“The music, friendships and bonds that were built from that time really have endured.
“You’re talking 30 years later and I still have a lot of mates from Dundee who I would have never had were it not for the Rhumba Club and partying together.
“It brought so many people together – it really did.”
Too much clubbing, not enough study
Not satisfied with dancing nights away at the Rhumba Club, Ben worked them away there too.
On leaving school he spent time in Spain before commencing a communications degree at Edinburgh Napier University.
When he wasn’t studying (which was all too often) he served drinks at the Citrus Club – another Rhumba Club venue.
“I was probably a bit too busy clubbing at that point and wasn’t perhaps focused on my studies,” Ben admitted.
He left the course after a year – but great things were around the corner.
EastEnders, Idris and Nesbitt
In his mid 20s Ben moved to Leeds and completed a creative writing degree that proved much more fruitful.
In 2011, he was one of eight writers selected from more than 500 established professional applicants for the BBC Writers’ Academy.
As a result, he gained credits on BBC shows Doctors, EastEnders and Casualty.
In October 2014, Ben joined the writing team on ITV’s Coronation Street and wrote 32 scripts before leaving the show in August 2017.
He has since written for Stan Lee’s Lucky Man starring James Nesbitt and, in 2019, wrote an episode of Sky comedy In the Long Run starring Idris Elba.
£11k raised in less than a month
Ben’s burning ambition was to write a stage show about house music.
In July 2022 he set up a crowdfunder that exceeded its £11,000 target in less than a month.
Better Days was born.
The play, named after Jimi Polo’s 1989 hit, takes the audience on a musical journey from 1990 to 1993 as house music crosses over into the mainstream.
It tells the story of Danny, a 19-year-old in 1990, who grapples with the intersection of two subcultures: football hooliganism and the house music scene.
It features some of the best music from the era, showing how house music evolved and changed through those early years.
Ice Factory reunion for 1990s clubbers
The tour has already had three dates in Leeds, two in Manchester, and single shows in Huddersfield and Glasgow.
On Thursday, March 9 the show will be performed at the 4042 club in Edinburgh (formerly the Citrus Club).
The run will end in Tayside. Shows at Perth’s Ice Factory (capacity 200) on Friday and Dundee’s Kings (capacity 150) on Saturday have already sold out.
But this popularity means it is sure to return in future years.
“The support from Perth and Dundee has been amazing,” Ben said.
“I am regularly back in Perth. I played a lot of football growing up there and have a lot of friends there.
“Around 90% of those at the Ice Factory will be people I know and the majority will be people who went to the Rhumba Club and I used to party with.”
Roxanne’s DJ at after-party
While the show is not set in Tayside, it is inspired by the music Ben heard and the people he met in his clubbing days in the area.
“Justin Robertson at Fat Sams was always one of my favourite DJs and there is a remix track of his in the show,” he said.
“Kelvin Andrews was another Rhumba Club regular and he got in touch with me when he heard about the show.
“Andy Weatherall unfortunately passed away but I used one of his songs in the show.
“I was a fan of Slam and Sunscreem, and the title track by Jimi Polo – Better Days – is a favourite of mine.
“They used to have an underage night in Roxanne’s and my long-time friend Mark Stuart used to DJ at that and he is playing at the after-party in the Perth show, over 30 years later.”
Ex-prisoner shocked by dancefloor hugs
The swift cultural change in the early 1990s is hard to underestimate.
“The arrival of house and rave music really did change the landscape massively,” Ben added.
“The old football hooliganism scene died down massively and music had a massive impact.
“I had a message on Facebook from a guy I know who went to prison for football violence.
“He came out six months later and suddenly everyone was hugging on the dancefloor.
“He couldn’t get his head round that, but he embraced that scene as well.
“It was a phenomenal time and people have amazing memories and I have tried to recapture the music and spirit of it.
“It is a play but it has that clubbing element too.”
TV series on music and football
Ben hopes the play will propel him towards a more autonomous career.
He is currently adapting a version of Graeme Armstrong’s The Young Team, and the aim is getting that across to a TV production.
“It’s the first time I have crowdfunded like this and I want to do more of this,” he said.
“I have a couple of ideas for other shows that are music based.
“I also have an idea for a novel and a TV series that covers music and football in the early 1990s.
“I am really interested in taking control of my own work without going through the traditional channels.”
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