Can you imagine the members of Grant St. Exit opening their own club? How about Total Package packing a clothing store?

Or the Earthquakers with a major-label recording contract?

As far-fetched as these imaginings sound, Menagerie had all three during its nine-year existence.

The music scene, not only in the Shenango Valley but also the region, was much different then -- in the '70s -- than it is now. Clubs hosted bands practically every night of the week, and Menagerie played the hits of the time as often as it wanted.

But that was more than 20 years ago. Most of the band members dropped active participation in playing music shortly after the band broke up.

While Menagerie is gone, memories of the Shenango Valley-based group are still strong, as evidenced by the group selling out 1,000 tickets for its 30th anniversary show Nov. 23 at Tiffany's in Brookfield.

Starting as a nine-piece band, Menagerie was styled in the image of horn bands such as Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears, but never limited its sound to aping those bands.

"How many bands do you know who could open with Black Sabbath and turn around and play Crosby, Stills and Nash or Earth, Wind and Fire?" asked guitarist and singer John Rongo.

Menagerie embraced the music of the decade, riffing on the Rolling Stones, harmonizing on the Beach Boys and grooving to disco.

The band was able to cover such diverse tunes partly because it had five lead singers.

"It's tough to find one good lead singer now," said Rongo, who has played with Savannah, the Works, the Galleyboyz and his current band, Frankie and the Sensations. "We came out of an era where vocals were it."

People wanted to hear what Menagerie wanted to play. The band averaged five to six nights a week, but once played for 40 nights straight and sometimes had two engagements in a day when they could book a high school afternoon gig.

"Between Cleveland and Pittsburgh there were 700 clubs and we played 'em all," Rongo said.

The band traveled as far as West Virginia and New York for gigs.

When the three-man horn section left in 1973 or 1974 in a disagreement over whether the band should be a full-time endeavor -- the horn players were in college and wanted to stay there -- Menagerie continued as a six-piece outfit.

The musicians embarked on many recording projects and signed a deal with Mercury. A succession of singles, including "Give Me One More Chance," "Love I Have to Give" and "Ladies on Liberty Street," achieved airplay locally and in far-flung territories, such as California, but never became popular enough to spawn an album or attract Mercury's full backing.

The naiveté of the musicians in the ways of the music business probably played a big role.

"We thought they would do all the work," vocalist Rich "Caz" Ference said of Mercury. "We didn't ask enough questions to leave it in someone else's hands."

In the mid-'70s, the band opened Club Menagerie and Menagerie Boutique in the Hickory Plaza (now Hermitage Towne Plaza), Hermitage, but they closed after about two years.

"It got more than we wanted to focus on," Rongo said.

The band ran its course in 1979.

"Nothing ever hit big enough for us to hold it together," Rongo said.

Ironically, the first musician to leave the band -- drummer Bob Androsko, in 1972 -- fueled the reunion effort.

"He's the guy who kept calling, and I think we went along with it to stop him from calling," Rongo quipped.

Androsko and Rongo ran into each other about eight years ago at Buhl Day and started talking music, particularly the horn sound of the band's early days.

Androsko has his wife, Jeri, to thank for helping spark his renewed interest in playing.

"My drums were packed in moth balls for years and my wife got them out about five years ago," he said. "She surprised me."

Androsko lobbied for a reunion show in earnest starting about two years ago.

The logistics of the reunion are daunting. The band members have spread far and wide, with Ron Crews settling in Cape Cod, Mass., and Bobby Paoletta in Naples, Fla.

But Crews and Paoletta committed to flying in for rehearsals, and 11 of the 12 musicians who had played with the band agreed to participate.

Only Gary Morocco of Naples, Fla., has not participated in rehearsals, although there has been talk that he might show up for the show anyway.

The players assembled for their first rehearsal in the spring.

"It was loose," said Rongo, one of only three members -- with Terry Demaria and Lonnie McClearn -- to have continued playing music over the years.

"Loose would be kind," Ference said. "The problem is you have guys trying to play after not having played in 20, 25 years, and trying to play the way they did back then."

While the lapsed players credit Rongo, Demaria and McClearn with holding the effort together, Rongo praised McClearn -- band director for Springfield (Ohio) Local Schools -- for taking over rehearsals and making them productive.

Come Nov. 23, the musicians will have had only about a dozen rehearsals to put together their four, 40-minute sets.

Androsko said the one thing that has surprised him is that the singers haven't lost their ranges.

"There won't be any surprises, musically," Ference said. "We're going to play what we used to play."

The only original the band has prepared is "Love I Have to Give."

Androsko said the show will not be presented as a concert.

"We want the largest dance floor they can give us," he said. "This is a party, period."

If you miss the show, you can always cue up one of the band's songs on the jukebox at Our Gang's in Sharon.