It was like a youth club on steroids. A place where you kept waiting for a grown-up to come in and take charge but they never did.
Where for years, the heavy thunk of Doc Martens met with the floor as bodies moved to the beat of new bands under burning lights.
For generations of Glasgow music lovers, The Vic and its black and white tiled dance floor was the venue of choice for the artsy, the alternative and the unusually eclectic among the city's indie rockers and electro cats.
Built like a rabbit warren, with corridors crammed to bursting point with people clutching pints of cheap beer, the Art School at night was a mix of the Breakfast Club meets punk with a dash of the city’s drop deid brilliant thrown in.
"You had a choice of Tennent’s, or Tennent’s on draft," recalls Mike Kinsella, who played at The Art School in the nineties.
“The Vic was the kind of place which was way too cool to feel like anyone was actually in charge,” Mike adds. “It was the absolute epicentre for alternative and Indie music.”
Before its closure for refurbishment three years ago, the Art School had risen through the decades as a venue of legend.
It had welcomed the likes of The Clash, an unsigned Texas and the BMX Bandits, while simultaneously giving birth to groups such as The Dish and The Boy Hairdressers, who were the short-lived precursors of Teenage Fanclub.
Then, after almost four decades of untamed 'coolness', the Union of the Glasgow School of Art closed its doors in May 2011.
Now, after an extensive refurbishment project, it's ready to welcome its wandering club lovers home after nearly three years.
Cocooned in ultra-modern glass with modernist minimalism, this rock 'n' roll butterfly emerges tonight with a brand new tech sound system in a building built to share music as The Vic intends it to be shared.
As Josh Hill, part of The Vic team said: "This week it has suddenly become a lot more real. We’ve been ironing out the final sound checks with our brand new system. We’re all set for tonight and the new sound system really does sound great.
"We've been open already this week for lunch and evenings, and that’s already been noted as a massive improvement," Josh adds. "We’ve got brand new kitchens, so the chips and cheese are gone, as nice as they were. It’s nice to have the option of cooking on something other than a deep-fat fryer."
It’s not just the chips and cheese which have been chased out in order to welcome the new. While old punters might recognise the Vic Bar on the ground floor and the Assembly Hall upstairs, the old chequered floor has been given its marching orders.
There's a brand new entrance too, now situated on Scott Street, but with all this 'newness’ will the old Vic regulars be willing to embrace the changes?
"I think nostalgia will actually play a big part," said Josh. “We’ve been getting a lot of emails from folk who used to study here and they have a heap of memories about the place. They talk about Orange Juice and The Clash and the people they met.
“We definitely haven’t changed the idea that this is a place for creativity. The building is more flexible to provide that, but we want to keep the connection with what it was in the past and carry it forward– and that is to be the flagship for Glasgow’s cultural centre.”
Tonight at 9pm The Vic opens its doors and it's sticking to its guns with an alternative line up including Svengalisghost, Portal Creators, Jackie Your Body and Sacred Paws.
It has been a good few years since the cry rang out down Sauchiehall Street, but if you do utter the infamous words tonight, Tweet us as you go and let us know what you think of the brand new Vic.
So come on folks, you goin’ up the Arty?
