The dancefloor of Deja Vu in Dundee’s Cowgate was well known as the best place for nostalgic tunes and affordable drinks in the city centre.
Do you remember jumping on the Boogie Bus before dancing the night away?
When it opened in 2000, the city nightclub promised to cater to an “older generation of clubbers” with music from the 1970s and 1980s.
Despite changing hands a couple of times, Deja Vu was one of the city’s most successful clubs until the music stopped for good and the lights went off in 2016.
Take a trip back to the dancefloor
Once the King’s Theatre, Harry Lauder, Marie Lloyd and Will Fyffe were among the legendary performers who graced its stage in the 1900s.
The red sandstone building was converted for cinema use in 1928 and also staged pantos, touring and local productions until 1961.
The cinema closed in 1984 and was used for bingo until 1994 when it became Brannigan’s pub featuring concerts by the likes of Big Country.
The 900-capacity Deja Vu launched on August 24 2000 with a VIP party.
Owned by leisure group First Leisure, it was the fourth of its kind to be opened in Scotland.
The new nightclub’s general manager, Catherine Rand, organised live entertainment and the Mackenzie Caledonian Pipe Band provided the soundtrack for the night alongside some dancers, with Lord Provost Helen Wright also in attendance.
Open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the nightclub was fronted by local DJ Con.
Every clubber’s request would be played by Con at Deja Vu, the club insisted.
Those opening months were a huge success story.
But there were some negative headlines when the club came under fire in November 2000 for their new cheap drink plan.
For just a tenner, the club’s attendees could have unlimited drinks for the rest of the night.
However, the city council warned that the promotional gimmick could lead to binge drinking and drunken mayhem in the early hours of the morning.
The local licensed trade association shared their concerns.
At the time, a spokeswoman for the club told The Courier: “People will not be able to order multiple drinks, and the bar staff will be vigilant for customers who have had too much to drink.
“We do not believe this move is encouraging excessive drinking.”
A year after its opening, Deja Vu was bought by Dundee company P & J Taverns Ltd, which was owned by local businessmen Peter and Jimmy Marr.
The club introduced a brand-new Boogie Bus.
All you had to do was phone the club and the bus would arrive to pick you up – free of charge!
The brand-new £15,000 Ford Transit had the club’s logo emblazoned on the side, ensuring it would stand out on any road.
However, it was only on the road for two weekends before it went missing!
The minibus was stolen from outside the Ballinard Hotel in Broughty Ferry in December 2001.
At the time, Jimmy Marr said: “It’s quite a distinctive vehicle – somebody must have seen it being driven about.
“It might just be sitting in some street in Dundee.
“Hopefully it has only been stolen for its novelty value.”
A couple of weeks later, the bus was returned to Marr’s home in Dundee.
The bus continued transporting locals to Deja Vu, which was open from 11pm to 2.30am and became incredibly popular on Friday and Saturday nights.
In 2003 the club introduced an under-18s night on the last Saturday of every month.
From 6-10pm, around 500 of the city’s kids enjoyed listening to their favourite hits played by the club’s resident DJ – Radio Tay’s John Milne.
Deja Vu capitalised on its older clientele with the introduction of Vegas nightclub in 2005, which opened in the basement and was strictly for over-30s.
It was adorned with images of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.
It had its own bar and toilets, as well as a separate entrance around the corner on St Andrews Street, with Vegas patrons also having access to Deja Vu as well.
Vegas opened on Friday and Saturday nights and there was also a third club that opened in the building at that time, which was Flava from Friday to Sunday.
Deja Vu became very popular over the years and offered a different experience for the over-21s who preferred to go there rather than the Mardi Gras or Fat Sam’s.
Queues used to snake round the venue during its glory days and it was also a popular venue for the Dundee Blues Bonanza and the X-Factor-style Tay’s Got Talent.
Deja Vu catered to the tastes of city clubbers across a range of genres and would always be the club you would end up in if you wanted to dance to 1970s and 1980s tunes.
It was affectionately known as “The Vu” by clubbers through the years.
The club remained popular despite some of its rivals closing their doors permanently and the changing face of the city centre generally as many pubs went under.
In 2015 Deja Vu’s owners made an appeal to the city council’s licensing board to keep the party going even longer and remain open until 6am.
Their application was rejected due to safety concerns.
A couple of months later, Jimmy Marr sold up and it was bought by former London nightclub owner Tahir Ramzan and renamed Beau Nightclub.
It was given a large-scale makeover.
Mr Marr predicted a bright future for the venue.
He said: “I’m pretty sad about it, but I think it’s the right time for me to move on.
“I wish Tahir all the best, he’s got some good ideas and with his enthusiasm and knowledge of the club scene I’m sure he’ll make a great success of it.”
At the time, Mr Ramzan told The Courier he wanted to inject some new life into the Seagate area after years of decline.
He was determined to tap into a “new generation of older clubbers” who were desperate for the right club to go to.
He said: “After watching the Dundee and Tayside nightlife slowly disappear over the last few years, it started to get to me.
“I see a new generation of people desperate to go out and party, but there has not been much happening at all in Dundee over the last few years.
“I feel that currently the West End is too saturated yet nothing great is happening.
“We used to have a good thing with bars in the Seagate, and Perth Road being busy, and a good walkabout culture which encouraged socialising.
“I do feel this can come around again with feedback from the research we have done.”
An advertising feature at the time said: “The main space of the Cowgate venue will be filled with the very best of contemporary dance and urban, with floor-filling classics seamlessly adding to the mix.
“One of the finest audio systems in Tayside will be pumping out the sounds, which will be enhanced with state-of-the-art lights.
“This will be the epicentre of the Beau Nightclub experience and, as the drinks flow, the atmosphere chills and the temperature rises, this will be the club to beat, the club to savour like no other.”
However, Beau Nightclub wasn’t to last.
Despite its increased capacity, it was unable to attract the 1,200 patrons it could accommodate and the beat finally stopped pumping.
The category B-listed building has been on the Buildings At Risk register since 2016.
Only memories remain of its days as one of Dundee’s best clubs.
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