THEY are the hot sweaty nights that after a year of Covid-19 we might all have forgotten existed.
Clubbing and music gigs were a chance to let your hair down and wig out for all the right and sometimes wrong reasons.
In New York, London, Paris and Munich, everyone was talking about it, and with Covid-19 it has even morphed into an online streaming event.
The 34-year-old Sub Club in Glasgow, which declares itself as the longest running underground dance club in the world and the roving Rhumba Club which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year are stalwarts of Scotlands thriving club culture.
And both feature in a new reflection of nightclub history which will re-open the Scotland’s first design museum, the V&A Dundee on May 1.
Night Fever: Designing Club Culture is the first large-scale examination of the relationship between club culture and design, charting the evolution from the 1960s to today The exhibition will include a new section on Scotland’s unique and distinct club culture, including legendary nights in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Paisley.
It will explore how the Scottish club scene holds closer ties to the music and influences of Chicago, Detroit and Europe than London clubs. But it is not all about Scotland, and the event will look into how nightclubs have always encouraged experimental and radical design, from New York’s Studio 54 to Manchester’s Haçienda.
The exhibiton charts how nightclub design has changed and developed as well as celebrating these critical cultural spaces at a very important moment, a year on from the first coronavirus lockdown.
Leonie Bell, director of V&A Dundee, said: “Design is fundamental to our lives, it’s a form of creativity that everyone engages with every day. At V&A Dundee we are committed to championing and exploring the many ways that design helps us and brings joy.
“This is a perfect exhibition to reopen V&A Dundee with. Nightclubs and dancehalls are precious cultural spaces that often play a pivotal role in our lives. Night Fever explores the history of nightclub design, looking at how this has changed from Italy in the 1960s right through to everyone’s living rooms today with online streaming of club nights.
“We can’t wait to welcome our visitors back to enjoy the new exhibition.”
Running from May 1 to January 9 next year and developed by the Vitra Design Museum and Brussels Design Museum, the event includes films, photography, posters, flyers, and fashion, as well as a light and music installations.
It explores the history of Glasgow’s Sub Club which on inception was a roving club night, hosted by Graham Wilson, Sam Piacentini and Allan Campbell.
Back in the mid-80s the Sub Club was a soul, jazz, and funk club night running in several city centre venues.
It eventually set down roots at 22 Jamaica Street, or Lucifier’s and the basement Sub Club as we know it today was opened on April 1, 1987 by Mr Wilson and Gregg McLeod.
Author Irvine Welsh is a fan of “the Subbie” and Primal Scream, one of the biggest bands ever to emerge from Scotland, played their first gig there.
Also under the exhibition microscope is the Rhumba Club’s chameleon-like shift to nights across central and east Scotland after kicking off in February 1991 at Roxanne’s Nightclub, Perth.
It was founded by Wayne Dunbar and Zammo, and was one of the first nights in Scotland where house music was presented as a club night.
Over its 30 year history, it has appeared at Fat Sam’s, Dundee; Citrus Club, Edinburgh; Ballys, Arbroath; and Ice Factory, Perth and has diversified into Balearic influences and mixing up American garage, techno and house styles.
Over the past few years, The Rhumba Club team moved into festivals and weekend extravaganzas, but still pay homage to the classic club night by regularly returning to the Ice Factory, Perth.
Laura Chow, head of charities from People’s Postcode Lottery which has been supporting the museum for seven years said: “This UK-exclusive exhibition is hugely exciting as we all look forward to brighter times ahead, and it is the perfect time to explore how important design and culture are to our lives and wellbeing.”
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