with White Trash and TheGangsters

Heritage Hotel

November 28

Wollongong's "fun party band" of the 1980s, Svegies Vegies, are reforming for a show next month - and their fans are stoked.

Fans have been hitting social media since the show was announced, keen to see the band's first official gig since 1998.

Singer Mark Chester says people still recognise him from his days fronting the band in the mid to late 1980s.

"What I've discovered is people of that generation are very nostalgic about what we did," Chester says.

"They remember us and they remember feeling good. It was about having a good time.

"In one way I think the legend of Svegies Vegies has grown bigger than the reality because we were never a particularly tight outfit. We never let that bother us, we were just out there trying to entertain - and I think that rubbed off on the audience."

The band played a mix of originals and covers from the likes of Motorhead, The Smithereens, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes - bands not widely known in '80s Wollongong.

Though fans probably did recognise the theme from The Love Boat TV series. But they also had some originals, and released the vinyl single Lonely Trail.

"We had social comment songs, we had songs that were based on just having fun," Chester says.

"I think three of the songs we wrote had the word 'fun' in the title, so we were heading down that road.

"We had Lonely Trail backed with Just Tell Me Lies, and that was quite successful by Wollongong standards.

"It was on high rotation on triple j at the time, and we did a clip for Lonely Trail which was being played on Sounds Unlimited, which was Channel 7's morning video music show.

"So we were getting some exposure but the timing of it was that all happened near the end of the band."

Chester says the band ended not long after he moved to Sydney for work and the distance became too much to keep it going.

The idea to reform is linked to Steel City Sound, a forthcoming Wollongong City Gallery exhibition about 50 years of rock'n'roll in the city.

Band member Frank Marcy was approached by curator Warren Wheeler to see if he had any Svegies memorabilia.

Marcy then started talking to the other band members and soon the idea of getting together for a gig was on the cards.

Wheeler, who also runs the Steel City Sound website, says he first heard of the band about five years ago while researching a story for the site.

"I was immediately intrigued by how different they were to what else was happening in the local music scene at that time," Wheeler says.

"Where other bands were drawing strongly from the sounds garage and beat, Svegies were marching to the sound of their own off-beat drum.

"Svegies Vegies embody the celebration aspect of the exhibition. They are all about having fun and enjoying the music.

"From a personal perspective, I am looking forward to seeing the band perform, as I was born too late to have witnessed their success the first time round."