IN Leigh it was Barbarellas; in Bolton it was Ritzy and for clubbers in Oldham, it was Dreamers.

Every Northern town had one in the 1990s — the place to be every weekend where you left the grind of Monday to Friday behind.

Leigh-born actress Rachel Austin is starring in a new musical featuring a cast of eight working class women and a ‘90s indie soundtrack.

Dreamers follows a group of female friends in their 20s who are living for the weekend and meets them again, 20 years after a dramatic event separates the group.

The play is partially set in a real former club in Oldham — Dreamers Nightclub — well-known in the area up until its closure in 2000.

Rachel said: "It's lots of fun.

"There are lots of local references but it's really adaptable to any working class, industrial town.

"You could pick it up and pop it anywhere.

"Everyone has got a Dreamers they went to in their town. In Leigh, it was Barbarellas and Ruebens."

With a mix of original songs and ‘90s classics, Dreamers tells the story of small town nights with big hearts and glorious friendships.

It doesn't matter if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too because it's Friday and they're in love.

Rachel plays three characters, including hairdresser Sam and a young, gobby teenager, in the musical which ends its run on Saturday.

She said: "There are some original compositions and we have got some takes on The Smiths, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, lots of 90s tunes.

"I've never done a musical before.

"It was nerve-wracking, I was terrified and then we all got to know each other.

"They keep saying it's because we are Northern, that's why we are all getting on so well."

How did Rachel feel to be appearing in her first musical?

She said: "I'm used to it now but you always have to keep challenging yourself.

"You have to keep raising the bar for yourself.

"You can't just settle for what you're comfortable with.

"This is completely different to anything I've done before."

In 2012, Rachel appeared in the award-winning production of Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

First produced on Radio 4, Black Roses is an elegy for Sophie who was attacked in a park in Bacup, in August 2007, along with her boyfriend Robert Maltby, because of the way they were dressed.

She was kicked and stamped on as she cradled her badly beaten boyfriend and later died in hospital.

After her death, family and friends set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation and successfully lobbied Greater Manchester Police to officially record offences committed against goths and other alternative groups, as hate crimes.

Black Roses has been made into a film, which Rachel shot last October with former Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Sophie's mother Sylvia.

Rachel says she never envisaged the way Black Roses would go from radio to the stage to a film, sharing Sophie's story and helping tackle prejudice.

She said: "It's just such an amazing opportunity to be involved with the foundation.

"I can't imagine having a better job really, doing something that is making a difference."

The film is due to be screened on the BBC in the autumn and the foundation will then take it into schools.