SugarSlam – left to right, Brett Stewart, Pete Bretel, John McConnell and Ross Falla – are at the Fermain Tavern on Saturday 9 October.

Around the early 90s, during a period when the live music scene was in one of its healthier phases, there were a handful of local bands that on a good night played at an intensity which was rarely matched.

My favourite of the crop around that time was SugarSlam.

Unfairly tagged with the grunge label, the four-piece played melodic powerpop with an edge which wasn’t often seen on the local stage. I recall them playing a storming gig at the Fermain Tavern on one of those nights when you realise you’re watching something a bit special. And then, in what seemed a blink of an eye, they were gone – or at least that’s how it seems in retrospect.

The good news is that SugarSlam have reformed and will be playing their first gig in two weeks’ time at The Tav.

I caught up with singer/guitarist Pete Bretel, drummer Brett Stewart, bass player Ross Falla and guitarist John McConnell earlier in the week for a chat about the reformation.

Prior to my meeting the band on Monday, I did some research and dug into the Press archives.

In actual fact the band were together for two years from 1992, despite Brett briefly leaving in that first year. The band split in ’94 but came back to play a final gig in ’96.

‘We changed our style quite a bit after the first year from straightforward rock and started writing our own stuff when we came back [after Brett’s brief departure] and then the whole grunge thing kicked off,’ said Brett.

This was around the time that any band with long hair and Converse trainers playing punky tunes was likened to grunge-kings Nirvana.

‘We never labelled ourselves grunge,’ said Pete.

‘Although we played some Nirvana songs, our own stuff was nothing like grunge.’

Judging by the band’s CD The World is Coming To Town, Pete is right – their sound, if I may lapse into a lazy comparison, is more akin to US powerpop merchants The Posies – melodic yet hard-edged self-penned tunes.

I reminded the band of some of their gigs I had recalled while trawling the archives.

Valestock in ’93 seemed to raise a chuckle.

‘We thought we were going down really well during our set but there was someone on the roof of the stage dancing, stark naked.’

I mentioned a gig at the Albany (Queen’s Road) with The Spangles.

‘Oh yeah, I smashed my guitar up that night,’ recalled Pete.

The band’s last gig was with Mark Le Gallez’s Little Indians and Humus.

‘The Little Indians cut their set short to let us play,’ said Brett.

But that last gig wasn’t an ideal swansong and the band got together for a proper send-off in December 1996.

So why get together now? I asked.

It turns out the four had got together to celebrate the birth of Pete’s kid.

‘The interest was there,’ said Pete.

‘People had been asking us if we were going to reform over the years,’ said Brett.

‘It’s always been other people hassling us rather than ourselves,’ said John.

‘I started looking at next year [to reform], particularly with family commitments and stuff. Originally we were going to do a one-off,’ said Pete.

SugarSlam playing at the Albany in 1994 just prior to some guitar-smashing.

‘It might be yet,’ said Brett.

According to Pete, the four had got together back in January.

‘We wanted to play in the summer, when the students were still around, but at the time we didn’t know where to play,’ said Brett, referring to the subsequent closing of the Fermain Tavern in March.

‘We’d been asked to play the Greenman and Chateau des Marais but we wanted to do our own gig first,’ said Pete. ‘The Tavern seemed the ideal place to play, but we thought we’d hold out [until it reopened].’

‘Thinking about other venues… we couldn’t do it justice,’ said John.

Brett admitted that the name ‘means nothing to anyone probably under 30’.

I hinted that the name has been bandied about over the years among gig-goers and that the band’s legacy has probably filtered down to those younger.

So what can we expect in two weeks’ time, I asked. Any new songs?

‘We’ll be playing four new songs at the gig which we wrote this year. We’ve a couple more in the pipeline.

‘And there are a few new covers too,’ said Pete, adding that due to the amount of songs, the band would play two sets.

‘We are certainly sounding a lot better than we did. I think that’s because we’re more accomplished musicians,’ said Pete.

As for the gig: ‘It’s all good, we’re really up for it.’

* SugarSlam play The Fermain Tavern on 9 October – 8pm till late. Band on at 9pm. £5 entry or £6 entry plus CD The World is Coming To Town.