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Badfinger

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Badfinger was a rock/pop band formed in Swansea, Wales in the early 1960s and is one of the earliest representatives of the power pop genre.

During the early 1970s the band was touted as the heir apparent to The Beatles, partly because of their close working relationship with the 'Fab Four' but also because of their similar sound. However, it was the meteoric rise and harrowing demise of Badfinger that cemented their name in rock history journals. Although poised to make an impact on the music scene of the 1970s, starting it out with four hit singles and a number-one Billboard composition, Badfinger became victim to the worst elements of the music industry; this resulted in bankruptcy and two suicides.

Biography

The Iveys

Badfinger originated with guitarist/keyboardist Pete Ham and a group called The Panthers formed in 1961, then The Black Velvets and The Wild Ones. Ham, Ron Griffiths (bass guitar) and David 'Dai' Jenkins (guitar) went on to form The Iveys, named after a street in Swansea, Wales. By March of 1965, Mike Gibbins had joined as the drummer and the band began playing locally with such groups as the Spencer Davis Group, The Who, The Moody Blues and The Yardbirds. The Iveys moved their base to London in 1966, performing both for David Garrick (a local singer) and as a solo act, reportedly opening for Pink Floyd. The following year, Jenkins was asked to leave the group and he was replaced by Liverpudlian guitarist Tom Evans.

A respectable stage act on the London circuit, performing a wide range of covers from Motown artists to The Beatles, the group garnered interest from several record labels. However, it was not until Mal Evans (an employee of The Beatles' Apple label) took up their cause that enabled them to be signed with The Beatles' record company. They were accepted by Apple in 1968 after several demo tapes were brought in by Mal Evans, finally getting approval from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon.

The Iveys released their first single "Maybe Tomorrow" in late 1968 and early 1969, reaching #67 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and the top 10 in several European countries. An album of the same name was issued in Italy, West Germany and Japan in 1969 (See Maybe Tomorrow). Plans to release the LP in the U.K. and U.S. were halted due to the single not reaching a high enough chart position and lower than expected sales numbers. Also, Allen Klein had just taken over Apple, and multiple record releases were postponed while Klein tried to straighten out the company's financial situation. Due to the chart success of "Maybe Tomorrow" in Europe and Japan, a follow-up single was demanded from Apple which resulted in the release of "Dear Angie" (a Ron Griffiths song) in July of 1969.

McCartney gave the group a morale boost when he offered them "Come And Get It," which he had written for the film soundtrack of The Magic Christian. McCartney produced the song for the band, as well as the group's original compositions of "Rock Of All Ages" and "Carry On Till Tomorrow." These three tracks would appear in the film and on the soundtrack album.

Shortly after the McCartney sessions, bassist Ron Griffiths was asked to leave the group. Reportedly, the primary reason Griffiths was dispatched was because he was the only married occupant of the communal band home and he was also raising a child there; this created friction with Tom Evans. Griffiths left the band for good in November of 1969.

Badfinger: the Apple years

In November of 1969, the group was still waiting for the release of "Come And Get It." It was during this time the group decided to change its dated name which had often led to confusion with The Ivy League. The group changed their name to Badfinger, which was suggested by Apple's Neil Aspinall (other suggestions included: The Glass Onion, The Prix, and The Cagneys from John Lennon, and Home from Paul McCartney). The name Badfinger was a reference to 'Bad Finger Boogie', an early working title of "With a Little Help from My Friends" (from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) after Lennon had composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger. Previous recordings made by The Iveys would be released as "Badfinger" for projects released within the next few years.

After unsuccessfully auditioning numerous bass guitarists, and with the release date of "Come And Get It" fast approaching, Badfinger enlisted Liverpudlian guitarist Joey Molland. The addition of Molland required Evans to shift to the bass guitar, something Evans was willing to do for the sake of expediency.

"Come and Get It" was released in December 1969 in the U.K. and January 1970 in the U.S. McCartney wrote the song about his dissatisfaction with Apple's finances. It was a hit throughout Europe and the United States, where it reached the Billboard Top 10. The track was included in the soundtrack to the film The Magic Christian, which starred Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Badfinger's album Magic Christian Music was released several months after the film's premiere and peaked at #55 on Billboard.

New Badfinger recordings commenced in April of 1970 with Mal Evans producing. Geoff Emerick took over as producer in late June of 1970. The album No Dice, released later that year, peaked at #28 on the Billboard charts. It was accompanied by the single "No Matter What," which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. More notably, another track from No Dice, "Without You", became a bigger hit when recorded by Harry Nilsson (reaching the Billboard #1 slot in 1972), and was eventually covered by hundreds of artists.

While over in America looking for prospects of a tour in April of 1970, Bill Collins was introduced to New York businessman Stan Polley. Polley eventually signed the band to a business management contract in November of 1970. Although Polley's professional reputation was solid at the time, his alleged connections to organized crime and dubious financial arrangements would only later become known to the group. Under Polley's direction, Badfinger toured in America for most of the Fall and were generally well received, although the group complained they were living in the shadow of The Beatles because of their close connection to the band. Media comparisons between Badfinger and The Beatles frustrated the group for years to come.

The band's popularity began increasing exponentially. They recorded many sessions for fellow Apple Records labelmates, notably playing acoustic guitar on tracks from George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" and providing backing vocals on Ringo Starr's single "It Don't Come Easy." Evans and Molland performed on John Lennon's album Imagine, and all four members of the band appeared as backup musicians throughout George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.

George Harrison and Todd Rundgren co-produced Badfinger's third album, Straight Up. It was released in the U.S. in December of 1971 and spawned two successful singles: "Day After Day," which reached #4, and "Baby Blue" (#14). The album (Badfinger's most commercially successful record) includes uncredited special guest appearances from George Harrison, Leon Russell and Klaus Voormann. In 1988, Straight Up ranked as the most-requested CD release among out-of-print albums in a readers poll for Goldmine magazine; it finally made it to CD in 1993.

The group was contracted to do one more album with the Beatles label, Apple Records. Despite their rising success, Apple was facing troubling times overall and its operation was crumbling. Allen Klein was still involved with the label's business dealings in 1972 and he let Badfinger's management know he was not going to be generous regarding any potential new deals. Meanwhile, Badfinger's business manager Stan Polley, was now openly under a cloak of suspicion of mis-management of finances by other clients he controlled, such as Lou Christie and Charlie CaLello. One shocking revelation was published in a series of New York Times articles representing him as a once "bagman" for the Mafia. The Badfinger members and Bill Collins continued to follow Polley's leads and were not investigating any rumors that were out there, though there was never clear indication they really knew much of what was developing at that time.

The sessions for what would be Badfinger's fourth and last album for Apple, Ass, began in September 1972 at Apple's basement studios at 3 Savile Row and would continue at five recording studios over the next nine months. During the recording of Ass, Polley negotiated a $3 million dollar deal with Warner Brothers Records that included an album from the group every six months for the next three years. The Ass release date would be held up by legal proceedings which followed Badfinger's departure from Apple. Ass featured a metaphoric record cover of a donkey (Badfinger) following a carrot (a coming lucrative record contract with Warner Brothers). Both Ass and its accompanying single, "Apple Of My Eye," failed to reach the Billboard Top 100.

Badfinger: the Warner Brothers years

Six weeks after the Ass sessions were completed, Badfinger entered the studio to begin recording material for their first Warner Brothers release, Badfinger (the intended title, For Love Or Money, was excluded from the album pressings). Badfinger and its two accompanying singles, "Love Is Easy" (U.K.) and "I Miss You" (U.S.), were unsuccessful. Badfinger did manage to maintain U.S. fan support as a result of several American tours. One concert at the Cleveland Agora on March 4, 1974 was recorded on 16-track tape for a possible live album release, although the performance was deemed unsatisfactory at the time.

Following the group's last American tour, Badfinger recorded Wish You Were Here at the Caribou Ranch recording studio in Colorado and AIR Studios in London. Unlike their previous two albums, Badfinger's Wish You Were Here was well received by Rolling Stone Magazine and other periodicals upon its release in October of 1974.

Internal friction centering on band management, money, and group leadership had been growing within Badfinger for a couple years. By 1974, Joey Molland's wife, Kathie, began taking a more assertive role in the band's politics, which did not endear her to Molland's bandmates, particularly Ham. Just before the band began rehearsals for an October 1974 U.K. tour, Ham suddenly quit the band during a management meeting, stating his decision was because of Mrs. Molland. He was replaced by guitarist/keyboardist Bob Jackson. As it was, during Ham's hiatus from the group, Polley had begun shopping Ham as a solo act, and he was quoted as being quite comfortable with that. However, just before the U.K. tour began, Ham rejoined the group after being told by Warners that they would have little to no interest in the band if he was gone. Jackson remained as full-time keyboardist, making the band a quintet. After the tour, the friction with Ham continued, and this time it was Molland's turn to quit the band.

Over the past year, Warner Brothers' publishing arm was becoming increasingly troubled by a lack of communication from Stan Polley regarding where an escrow account of advance funds for the group was being held. Per their contract, Polley was to put in safe-keeping U.S. $100,000 in a mutually-accessible account for Warner Brothers and the group to access, but he would not reveal its whereabouts, having started a laundering scheme. Threats from Warners Publishing were going on behind the scenes.

With Molland gone, and an increasingly unstable situation overall, Polley instructed the band to go straight back into Apple Recording Studios. Within two weeks, tracks were cut for an album later titled, Head First, and rough mixes were distributed to Warner Brothers in America. Polley appeared to be hoping to squeeze out one more advance. The ploy did not work, as a lawsuit had already been filed during the recordings on December 10, 1975 in an L.A. Superior Court. A quick rejection was made of the tapes. The legal action eventually led to the worldwide close of promotion and distribution of Wish You Were Here.

Suicides and Reunions

Badfinger spent the early months of 1975 trying to figure out how to proceed with the unclear situation at hand. By now, Collins was barely in the loop, and Jackson said booking agents and prospective managers were routinely turning the band away because of their restrictive contracts with Polley. Ham tried many times to contact Polley by telephone during the early months of 1975, but was allegedly never able to reach him.

From the beginning of the established Badfinger Enterprises, Inc., Polley had various contracts with the band that dictated that receipts of touring, recording, publishing and even their writer performance royalties would go into holding companies controlled by Polley. This led to a salary arrangement for the group, which various members had at times complained was inadequate compared to their gross earnings. By March, salaries were no longer arriving and panic set in, especially for Pete Ham, who had recently acquired a house and had a child due that May.

On April 24, 1975, Ham hanged himself in his garage studio in Surrey. His suicide note, addressed to his girlfriend and her son, blamed Stan Polley for his misfortunes and reflected a broken psyche: "Anne, I love you. Blair, I love you. I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better. Pete. P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me." Ham's final compositions, such as "Ringside" and "No More," were clearly portending of his depression over the situations he faced. These were later released on a posthumous CD of Ham demos 7 Park Avenue, in 1997. Ham was described universally as extremely trusting, loyal, kind, gentle, humble, and generous. Pete Ham's daughter was born a little over one month after his death. She was named Petera in tribute to him by her mother, Anne.

After Pete Ham's death, Tom Evans established The Dodgers. The line-up consisted of Bob Jackson, John Wilson and Paul Hooper. In 1976 they released three U.K. 45's on Island Records. "Don't Let Me Be Wrong" was their stateside release, but it failed to chart. Meanwhile, Joey Molland had started a band in 1975 with Mark Clarke (Colosseum), Jerry Shirley (Humble Pie) and David Kaffenetti (Rare Bird), called Natural Gas. With Peter Wood (SB&Q) replacing the latter, they released an album in 1976 and several singles, but they also failed to chart, despite critical raves on their support tour of Peter Frampton. Mike Gibbins performed session drumming for various Welsh acts, including Bonnie Tyler on her huge international hit "It's A Heartache," which reached #3 on the U.S. charts.

By 1977, both Molland and Evans were out of the music business; Molland occasionally laid carpet while Evans worked with a company that insulated pipes. That year, drummer Kenny Harck and guitarist Joe Tansin recruited Molland for a new band. When the new group needed a bass player, Molland suggested Evans, who joined after a visit to California in 1978 to check out the situation. Suggestions from record companies led to the decision to call themselves Badfinger, and together they recorded their "comeback" album Airwaves, which was released in 1979. Tansin officially left the band immediately after the album was recorded.

To promote the album, Molland and Evans recruited Peter Clarke (Stealers Wheel) on drums and Tony Kaye (Yes) on keyboards. The single "Love is Gonna Come At Last" reached #69 on the Billboard charts. They recorded and released a second album, Say No More in 1981, with Glenn Sherba added on guitar and Richard Bryans on drums. This LP was distributed on the independent label Radio Records. Its single, "Hold On," reached #56 on the Billboard charts. Ultimately, Evans and Molland split acrimoniously in 1981.

During 1982 and 1983, Molland and Evans operated rival touring bands, both using the name Badfinger which caused deep conflict in their relationship. Evans teamed with Bob Jackson on both tours and at times with Mike Gibbins, guitarist Adam Allen, guitarist Reed Kailing (The Grass Roots), guitarist Donnie Dacus (Chicago), or drummer Lenny Campanaro. During this time, Evans and Jackson signed a spurious management contract with a Milwaukee businessman. Both were later sued (Evans for U.S. $5 million) when they abandoned the contract due to their claim of management obligations being unresolved.

On November 19, 1983, Evans and Molland argued on the telephone about the past income still in escrow from the Apple era and the lucrative "Without You" performance royalties Evans was receiving. Following the argument, Evans hanged himself in the garden at his home.

In August 1984, Molland, Gibbins and Jackson played a small number of U.S. dates as part of a 20th Anniversary of the British Invasion in America package tour. In 1986, Molland and Gibbins reformed Badfinger, until Gibbins left for good in 1990.

Posthumous Projects and Releases

Molland was instrumental in releasing the 1974 Agora recording on Rykodisc in 1990, called Day After Day: Live, which received mixed critical reactions due to his later overdubbing and a rearranged track order. The CD also sparked a lawsuit when the band's accounting firm became alerted to the release, readjusting Molland's royalty income. After the Rykodisc royalties were properly distrbuted, Molland sued the other members and their families for expenses and producer's royalties. Molland has also been widely criticized for his 1995 re-recording of Badfinger's hit songs for a CD release. The recordings have since been distributed with deceptive packaging, with photos displaying the original 1970s version of the group.

Badfinger's first greatest hits collection, called The Best Of Badfinger was released by Apple in 1995. A more comprehensive collection, which included the addition of some of the best tracks from their two released Warner Brothers albums, was called The Very Best Of Badfinger, and was released by Apple in 2000.

A detailed biography on Badfinger written by Dan Matovina came out in 1997 entitled Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger, with a 2nd revised edition coming out in 2000.

Where Are They Now?

Molland performs occasionally in the United States as "Badfinger" or "Joey Molland's Badfinger" and has released three solo albums, After The Pearl, The Pilgrim, and This Way Up. He also privately released a CD collection of some of his best demos, called Basil in 1998.

In 1997 and 1999, posthumous collections of Pete Ham home recordings were released on separate CDs, 7 Park Avenue and Golders Green.

One posthumous Tom Evans CD was released in 1995, Over You: The Final Tracks which was produced by friend and post-Badfinger songwriting partner, Rod Roach.

Mike Gibbins released his first solo album on Forbidden Records in 1997, called A Place In Time. Between 2000-2003, he released 3 more solo albums on CD (More Annoying Songs, Archeology, and In The Meantime) on his own private label, Exile Music, with the first, A Place In Time being remastered and reconfigured for re-release in 2001. Mike Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Oviedo, Florida on October 4, 2005. He was 56.

In 1995, Bob Jackson joined The Fortunes, a 1960s English group still playing on the nostalgia circuit. He is currently working on his first solo album, and is still touring in the U.K. with The Fortunes.

A Badfinger convention in Swansea, Wales held in May 2006 brought together Jackson, Griffiths, and several surviving members of the Ham, Evans and Gibbins families.

Discography

Year of Release Title Singles (Billboard/Cashbox ranking) [Melody Maker]
1969 Maybe Tomorrow (as "The Iveys") "Maybe Tomorrow" #67
1970 Magic Christian Music #55 "Come and Get It" #7/#6 [#4]
1970 No Dice #28 "No Matter What" #8/#3 [#5]
1971 Straight Up #31 "Day After Day," #4/#3 [#10] "Baby Blue" #14/#10

1973 Ass #122 "Apple Of My Eye" #102
1974 Badfinger #161 "Love Is Easy" (no charting) "I Miss You" (no charting)

1974 Wish You Were Here #148
1979 Airwaves #125 "Lost Inside Your Love" (no charting) "Love Is Gonna Come At Last" #69

1981 Say No More #155 "Hold On" #56
1990 Day After Day: Live
1995 The Best Of Badfinger
2000 The Very Best Of Badfinger
2000 Head First

Notes

References

External links



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