Jeremy Fugleberg

Roger Zobel is going to wear a string tie, strap on a guitar, open up his vocal chords and rock you all night long.

Zobel sings and plays guitar for Don Robar and the Monarchs, a band that will step straight out of the past into the spotlight at the Brookings Inn Saturday night at 8 p.m.

The Monarchs were a band of pharmacy students who played gigs all over Brookings and South Dakota from 1959 until graduation broke them up in 1965. Some of the music they played back then included “Night Train,” “Sentimental Journey,” and “Mack the Knife.”

Kirk Wilson, of Martin, S.D., was a fellow pharmacy student at the time and said he remembers the Monarchs.

“I knew Zobel and (drummer Don Robar) Spawn,” he said, remembering the shows he attended. “They were kind of the ‘thing’ at the time.”

The band got its name from their drummer and lead vocalist, Don Robar Spawn, who now works as the pharmacy director at a medical center in Pipestone, Minn.

“During our era, every band had to be called ‘Somebody and the Somethings,’ ” Spawn said. “Since I sang most of the vocals, I guess I fell into the position of front man.

“Robar was the family name on my mother’s side.