Writer Ben Tagoe's latest play about the 1990s rave and clubbing scene

Last year Tagoe put out a call on social media for supporters to pre-buy tickets for a production that would come into existence if the required amount was raised. A year on and Better Days is getting ready to kick off a two-week tour later this month.

“I sensed the appetite and the interest that was there, but it still takes you by surprise when you see so many people join together and actually put their money forward for something that doesn’t actually exist yet,” says Tagoe.

“It was really inspiring to see that. A real community has built around the show. We had donations from people in New York, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, some of whom might not even see the show.”

Better Days tells the story of Danny, a 19-year-old in 1990, who finds himself at a crossroads between two tribes – the burgeoning house music scene and the gang of football hooligans to which he is bound by fierce loyalty. The one-man show’s big selling point is that it will feature some of the biggest rave and clubbing tunes of the era. “If you were there, it will be a musical trip down memory lane and if you weren’t, it’s a chance to experience one of the most exciting periods in UK music,” says Tagoe.

If the names N-Joi, Frankie Knuckles, 808 State and the track Better Days by Jimi Polo spark involuntary dance moves in you, this show is set to transport you back to a different time.

While the show isn’t entirely autobiographical, Tagoe says it draws on his own experience. “Rave and house music was a massive part of my youth. It was a magical time with so many amazing memories,” he says.

Tagoe has taken a risk with the show, asking the audience to stand for the 70 minute duration. Given the fact that those who were there for 90s raves might be feeling those nights from back then in their knees by now, it’s a bold choice.

“I wanted it to be an intimate, standing show. I felt it would be best to get the crowd as close as possible to the performer to recreate the feeling of being in a club, but with the storytelling integrated. It will be like listening to an old mixtape from the early 90s, but with Danny’s personal story mixed in,” he says.

For Tagoe, the play is also a return to writing for theatre, having spent recent years writing on television shows from Sky Comedy In the Long Run to James Nesbitt-starring Stan Lee’s Lucky Man.

“I’d never seen the early 90s era on stage this way. I felt it would be a way of bringing a live dramatic performance to a wider audience who might not be regular theatre goers, those people who are more about the music and the memories,” says Tagoe.

“But I also wanted to do something that would work in theatre studio spaces too. It feels like people of my generation are looking for a way of coming back together and enjoy the music, without necessarily staying out until 7am or all of the other stuff that went with the rave scene.”

Tagoe, who will direct the piece, will be launching Better Days with a Q&A after the first performance at the Farsley Old Woollen, with Dave Beer, the founder of Leeds’s famous Back to Basics. “I’m still in touch with so many people who used to go to clubs and raves in the 90s both in Yorkshire and back at my home in Scotland,” says Tagoe.

“Whenever I mentioned the idea, people got really excited about reliving those times in a different way, so I just went for it with the crowdfunder. I felt that some money to get started would get the ball rolling and it really worked. The plan was to find a theatre to produce it with and there was concrete interest, but it was going to take too long and I didn’t want to keep people waiting when they had pledged so much money to make the show.”

And now that the money is raised and the show is here? “First and foremost, I want it to be a really good night out, a chance to enjoy the music with people who share that passion and have similar memories.”Better Days opens at the Old Woollen, Farsley, on February 28. The two-week tour goes to Leeds Playhouse, March 3 & 4 and Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, March 7.