Photo courtesy of Dickie Evans

The Soulettes (from left): Becky (Hazzard) Lovelace, Nadirah "Sloshie" Wright (formerly Marian Turner) and Marilyn (McCadden) Reynolds.

Photo courtesy of Dickie Evans

The 24 Karat Soul: From back left are Greg Slusher, Dickie Evans and Mark Moock; in front are David "Sheryl" Smith and Dougie Higgins.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Dickie Evans passes out roses to former members of The Soulettes during a reunion for the women and the members of The 24 Karat Soul at his home Sunday. They gathered to hear a recently discovered recording of a performance they gave at the Salem Civic Center.

Editor's note: This online version has been updated from the original print version to correct Rob Hartman's name.

In the late 1960s, eight Roanoke Valley high school students formed a soul band, played for three years and broke up with some great memories but no recording of perhaps their most important performance -- opening for the Beach Boys at the Salem Civic Center.

The set, in which The 24 Karat Soul warmed up a packed house, appeared destined to remain only a memory. But, then, out of the blue, a copy surfaced recently.

Bonnie Evans of Roanoke County, the wife of band leader Dickie Evans, was at a women's social function in Daleville. She got to talking to Rob Hartman, whose wife was hosting the affair, and Hartman revealed that he had an audio copy of the Oct. 25, 1968, performance.

Sunday, the band gathered to hear the recording and hold a reunion more than 40 years after breaking up. Seven of the eight original members were present at the Evans' home.

"Check out these suits we were wearing," said Mark Moock, 57, of Roanoke, the saxophone player and now a production worker at ITT Night Vision.

He was holding a glossy, black-and-white promotional photograph of the male members of the band.

The matching dark suits, purchased at Davidsons in Roanoke, "were double breasted, and they had bell bottoms," Moock said with amusement. Even the shoes matched. They were brown pointed shoes with buckles.

Dickie Evans, 61, the trombone player who is now a manufacturer's sales representative, looked across the room at David "Sheryl" Smith, 57, of South Hill, the band's guitarist. He is now a chemistry teacher in the community college system.

"You were excellent," Evans said.

"Thank you," Smith replied.

"If his strings broke, we were dead," Evans said.

The band consisted of five men plus three women who were billed as The Soulettes. The group was the house band for The Warehouse, a club that used to be on Salem Avenue in what is now a multiunit residential building. Five of the band members -- Evans, Moock, Becky (Hazzard) Lovelace, Marilyn (McCadden) Reynolds and Nadirah "Sloshie" Wright, who used to be named Marian Turner -- attended Jefferson High School, Smith attended William Fleming High School and Dougie Higgins attended Cave Spring High School. Greg Slusher of Arizona, who missed the reunion, attended Northside High School.

The band, which played at proms, fraternity parties and clubs, performed soul hits learned from listening to records and did not do any original tunes. It had a booking agent and traveled around the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.

The night of the Beach Boys show was a chaotic one because The 24 Karat Soul was scheduled to play for the homecoming party at Jefferson High afterward. After the civic center performance, the band dashed to the school. By prearrangement, they left their drums and amps at the Salem Civic Center because there was not going to be enough time to move the gear.

The Beach Boys, who had had an earlier show at Virginia Tech, helped out by lending the band some of its equipment to use at Jefferson High. The Beach Boys used The 24 Karat Gear left at the civic center.

Later that evening, the bands traded equipment back at the Hotel Roanoke, where the Beach Boys were staying.

After leaving the hotel, Evans recalled that he forgot to ask for payment. But, given that everyone had had such a good time, it didn't end up mattering.

"Nobody in the band complained to me about it," he said.

Hartman did not make the reunion but had seen the concert. He recalled being 12 years old. In an interview, he said he happened to have the recording and shared a copy at no cost.

For Sunday's celebration, Evans prepared a copy of the music for each of his former fellow band members and handed it over in a gold gift bag. The women received roses.