By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – Some Potsdam natives who hit it pretty big in pop music as the Gigolo Aunts in the 1990s and 2000s have been invited back to Spain to play a couple of concerts in early September for their many ardent fans there.

“We’ll be in LA next week to rehearse, and then we’ll meet in Madrid on the 30th, and rehearse some more,” said guitarist Phil Hurley.

They’ve been asked to come back to Spain to play in a big two-part music festival there, with one performance in the north of Spain and the second in the south.

Inactive as a full studio and touring band for several years, the Gigolo Aunts began life in Potsdam in the 1980s when Phil and Steve Hurley, Dave Gibbs and Paul Brouwer teamed up to form Sniper, changing the name a few years later as they gigged around northern New York.

Their repertoire and reputation grew, leading to recording contracts and CDs and EPs, and even to performing their music in a few Hollywood movies in the 1990s, including “Dumb and Dumber.”

The band, described as indie rock, alternative rock, and power pop players, put out several recordings under various labels and toured extensively in this country and abroad.

The Aunts haven’t played together much for some time, but their popularity in Spain has endured since the release of their 1998 album “Minor Chords and Major Themes,” which was a big hit there. Their success led to a performance at a major festival in Spain the following year, and their fan base grew and remains strong.

“It’ll be very satisfying to go back and play for them,” said Phil Hurley of the Spanish fans. He recalled concerts where the band would be playing and thousands of fans would be singing along, word for word, note for note.

Brouwer, the original drummer, left the band in 1995. He is a school principal in Maine.

Phil Hurley left the Aunts the next year, replaced on guitar by Jon Skibic, who will be playing the Spanish dates with Phil for a dual-lead-guitar sound.

Bassist Steve Hurley has been teaching English in Southern California and plays in a band there.

Vocalist and guitarist Dave Gibbs has been a successful stage and TV music writer, director and producer, and is now working on a London production of the stage musical “Rock of Ages.” He’ll be on stage in Spain with the band.

Mark Rivers, a drummer who joined the band when they were based in Boston and accompanied the band on previous trips to Spain, will be on board for this trip.

Their last full album CD was Pacific Ocean Blues, released in 2002.

Phil has been playing for several years with country-rock band Stonehoney in Austin, Tex., but as it turns out, they have decided to take a break – not officially disbanding, he says, but to give themselves a break and give each band member, each a talented songwriter, a chance to experiment on their own.