When The Ogres reunite at the Lampost on Saturday night for their 50th-year Martha’s Vineyard reunion, they will perform together one last time while also looking back on their decades-old decision to rock-out on Martha’s Vineyard during the summers of 1966 and 1967.

Four of the original five band members plan to attend the reunion. The four members include Steve Nystrup, Fred Domont, Art Deske and Ken Griffen.

Two of the original Ogres: Ken Griffen and Fred Domont. — Ray Ewing

“We were the northern version of a southern rock band,” said Mr. Griffen. The band viewed themselves as one of the original hippie bands inspired by The Beatles and Jefferson Airplane.

“Everyone in the band was very good looking, it was like a boy-band,” Mr. Griffen added. “All the kids wanted the Ogres in their own little backyard.”

Mr. Griffen started the band at the age of 17 when he transferred to New Britain High School in Connecticut in 1965. He wanted a chance to play the guitar and recruited his cousin Steve Nystrup to join him. The rest of the band gradually formed while they performed for frat parties at Yale and Central Connecticut University. The band sought a new adventure after their first year.

“We were trying to decide where we were going to play for the summer,” said former Ogres bass player Fred Domont, now a Martha’s Vineyard resident. While Mr. Domont initially wanted the band to perform at Lake George, the rest of the Ogres voted for the Vineyard. When Bruno Demarco approached the Ogres hoping to serve as their manager, Mr. Griffen informed him of the band’s one request.

"It was like a boy band," founder Ken Griffen said.

“I said, get us a gig to play the whole summer on Martha’s Vineyard,” Mr. Griffen recalled. “He somehow did it. That’s how we came here. It was a miracle.”

Mr. Demarco acquired a permit from Vineyard Haven selectmen allowing the band to rent the Island A Go-Go on Beach Road. The band lived and performed there during the summer of 1966, when the band members had just finished their junior year of high school, and in 1967, after they graduated from high school. Scheduled to play four nights a week, the band never lacked for venues. Tennis and beach clubs across the Island including the East Chop Beach Club sought out the musicians for their parties. A publicity idea initiated by Mr. Demarco landed the Ogres their debut performance on a barge in the middle of Menemsha Bay.

During that first summer William Styron hired the band to perform in front of Robert and Ted Kennedy in Vineyard Haven.

“I went over to talk to Mr. Kennedy,” Mr. Griffen said. “He’s asking me about the Viet Nam War, then he introduces me to James Jones [author of From Here to Eternity].”

The star-struck Mr. Griffen loved the author’s work, in particular The Thin Red Line, a book he had read shortly before performing that night. When Mr. Jones praised the band’s performance it was a dream come true for Mr. Griffen.

Some members of the Ogres returned as Fountainhead in the 1970s.

Focused on their music, the boys never let drugs or alcohol derail their success. In fact, according to Mr. Griffen, they never touched the stuff.

“We were all about the music,” he said.

The band folded after the summer of 1967 despite their on-Island fame. Most of the band scattered to attend separate colleges, but some members stuck together and managed to play with one another in new bands.

Mr. Griffen and Mr. Nystrup attended University of Connecticut together while Mr. Deske attended Middlebury College in Vermont. The three band players met up years later to play in the band Fountainhead in 1974. Mr. Griffen currently works as a senior vice president for Merrill Lynch in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Mr. Domont attended Bryant & Stratton College in Boston before returning to live on Martha’s Vineyard. He has lived in Edgartown for 49 years and served as the water superintendent in Tisbury and Edgartown after working as a commercial fisherman and carpenter.

Former drummer Marc Pelletier will miss this weekend’s performance due to a prior personal commitment.

The reunion show on Saturday, July 9, will include performances by both the Ogres and Fountainhead. The show takes place at the Lampost, 6 Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, beginning at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. and tickets are available at the door, first come, first served.