A COVERS band formed by four friends which became one of the most popular in the Borders area is reforming after 31 years.

Singer Mike Harris and drummer Nigel Protheroe recruited guitarist Gary Gray and bassist Roger Smith to form rock-n-roll party band Cost-a-Livin in 1986.

The four original members, and three others who joined the group over the years, are reforming for a charity reunion gig at The Baskerville Hall Hotel, which many of their fans will remember as Clyro Court, in Clyro on Saturday, October 7 in aid of Cancer Research UK and two local hospices.

The Hay-on-Wye-based four-piece played their first gig on July 23, 1986 – a party, organised by the town’s mayor at the Butter Market, to celebrate the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.

While the marriage of Prince Andy and Fergie proved to be little more than an 80s fad the band went from strength to strength and were soon making regular trips up the A49 to Shrewsbury, Telford, and the Midlands, to the Forest of Dean and Gloucester, and also west to Lampeter and further.

Social clubs, hunt balls, weddings and YFC events provided the bulk of the band’s work and even playing 88 gigs in just one year.

But after their initial success the original line-up broke up said bassist Roger, who was 18 when he joined the band and is now the landlord of the Clarence Inn in Brecon.

“The drummer Nigel left and not long after that I gave it up for another project,” said Roger who joined some of his former school pals in a band playing their own original music. The band took a short break but the phone kept ringing so Cost-a-Livin 2 was born. Norman Findley was recruited, a multi-talented keyboard player and that transformed the sound.

“Use of keys meant the band could cover more styles of music and arrangements, and bass players Alan Powell and then Clive Meredith joined.

“The band got very busy again and it was hard to arrange practices when you were gigging perhaps twice a week – family harmony and all that. Ban Findley, Norman’s son played bass with us for a while and after Norman left for Bali there were a number of keyboard players Roger Philbrand, Andrew Protheroe, and most recently Dave Phillips. Other fill-ins included Sean Hackett on drums and Tim East on vocals covering when Mike’s wife Lin was poorly.”

The band called it a day again in 1994 after Lin sadly passed away. But as the phone carried on ringing, the band sometimes agreed to play the occasional function.

Roger said the band have many happy, and amusing, memories of their days together, from playing small clubs to even appearing on the BBC’s Children in Need programme.

“The thermostat on the smoke machine we used for effects went on the blink and we managed to fill the entire function room of the social club in the Forest of Dean that we were playing at with vapour.

“At the same gig an old dear came up to the stage at the end of the night with a cake, because she always gave a band she enjoyed a cake after they had performed. The cake was more like a brick so it must have been some time since she had seen a band she liked,” recalled Roger.

“We had to get changed at the back of the revolving stage at Wormelow and Gary in his underpants saw his trousers disappearing to the front of the stage because one of the boys had pressed the revolve switch and of course everyone went around on the staging including Gaz.”

Over the years the band would regularly perform the Romp in the Hay gigs and also became favourites the Royal Welsh Show Young Farmers’ Village.

But more unusual gigs included one at Dudley Zoo and, what the band considers its pinnacle, the ‘Band on the Run challenge in aid of Children in Need in November 1991.

Cost-a-Livin were due to play a series of shows over 24 hours which started at the Rose & Crown in Hay at 7pm on a Thursday evening and finished just after midnight the following day at the BBC in Cardiff Cardiff.

On the way the band played at Newtown, Rhyl, Bangor, Aberystwyth, Carmarthen, Llanelli, Port Talbot and a murder mystery event at Coedymwster Hotel.

They took a bus load of fund raisers mostly made up of Lions club members and partners but other volunteers and interlopers who phoned in work sick on Friday morning because they were with the band in Rhyl.

They had two lorries one carrying the generator the other being the stagehand ended up on BBC Wales TV following Ruth Madoc.

They repeated the challenge in 1992 and 1993 for Radio Wyvern on ‘The Snowball tour’ and the ‘Final Tour’.

“The sound of the band has always been rock ‘n’ roll based but are a party band always have been, always will be,” said Roger.

“The original motto was ‘Keeping music live’. No inflated egos in the band members, and the aim always was to have fun with the music and hope the audience had as much fun. The enjoyment came from the audience’s enjoyment.”

The reunion gig, which will feature the original line up as well as Keith Dickens, Clive Meredith and Dave Phillips play The Baskerville Hall, from 8pm, on Saturday, October 7.

Tickets are available in Hay from The Newsagents 3 Lion Street, Londis 2 High Town, Beer Revolution Market Street and F W Golesworthy 17 Broad Street. Also from any of the Band members. All the proceeds will go to St Davids Hospice (Usk House), St Michaels Hospice and Cancer Research UK.