When promoter Robin Kimura presented "The ’70s Nightclub Reunion IX" last summer, he announced the popular music series was coming to an end.

All but two of the bands that met his stringent criteria for playing a reunion show — groups must be largely intact with original members — had already performed at the standing-room-only events. The other two — the Kasuals and the Dimensions — couldn’t be had.

Dimensions leader Mark Nishimoto said the group wasn’t interested. That left the Kasuals, whose problem was coordinating the schedules of the six original members, some of whom are full-time musicians on Guam where the band originated, with others who live and perform on the mainland.

So it was until the group was able to work things out and provide an encore opportunity for the ’70s-themed shows.

"We wanted to do this a long time," said group leader Frank Mendiola, who now works for the city. "How many years did I try to get these guys together? … But it was meant to go through."

The original "guys" were Mendiola (guitar), Jesse Bais (vocals), Zach Flores (keyboards), Roger Jereza (drums), Pat Palomo (keyboards) and Danny Perez (bass).

Maybe it was Mendiola’s leadership — he had been a squad leader in Vietnam and is the eldest band member by about a decade — but there were only two changes in the lineup between 1975 and 1985 when the Kasuals flourished here. Salvatore "Sal" DiAmore had replaced Jereza by the time the Kasuals recorded its debut album in 1982. Vocalist Mark DeMello, who joined the group about the time his mother, Eunice DeMello, became the band’s manager, and was also part of the 1982 roster, was elevated to the Kasuals’ primary voice when Bais returned to Guam in 1984.

The ’82 recording lineup proved a winning combination. The Kasuals won the most promising artist category at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards in 1983.

Of those eight who comprised the Kasuals, six will be on stage Saturday at the Ala Moana Hotel. Flores was unable to take time off; Jereza had to decline for health reasons. Mike Hartendorp, a friend of Palomo’s who sings and plays guitars and keyboards, will cover Flores’ spot and add another voice to the harmonies.

WHEN THE KASUALS arrived from Guam in 1975, the band was greeted with a shrug. Nightclub regulars in Waikiki didn’t think of the U.S. territory as a source for top club bands. As for the name, well, spelling it with a "K" seemed a bit too cute. (Mendiola said the alternate spelling was used to set the Guam group apart from a Hawaii band called the Casuals, which was also the name of a band he played in before joining the military.)

"A lot of (people in Hawaii) thought we were still living in huts," Mendiola said. "They didn’t think that Guam was quite built up — like Hawaii only in a miniature Waikiki form. They thought Guam was like Micro­nesia."

But it didn’t take the Kasuals much time to become headliners.

After picking musicians from some of the top bands on Guam to create the Kasuals, Mendiola set his sights on bringing the group to a bigger, brighter stage in Waikiki. The Kasuals attended an audition where almost two dozen bands were competing for a full-time club gig at the Waikiki Beachcomber. They got the job.

Although the Kasuals came to Hawaii to play American pop hits in dance clubs, the group brought a bit of Guam with them.

A much-requested number was "Si Sirena," a Chamorro song about a legendary mermaid.

The Kasuals didn’t include it on the 1982 album, but Bais recorded it after he returned to Guam and it became a hit there.

More than 35 years after the Kasuals played its first engagement as Waikiki headliners, "Si Sirena" is certain to be the emotional highlight of the set Saturday.