Badfinger- The Tragic Story of The Band - Deaths of Pete Ham, Tom Evans

Badfinger: The Tragic Story of the Band

0:00 - Introduction/The Iveys
5:45 - The Iveys Become Badfinger
8:39 - Management Problems
10:38 - Warner Brothers Years
13:07 - Lawsuits/Band Deaths

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As the first non-solo act on Apple Records, Badfinger had remarkable chemistry, huge hits on the charts, and they’d be critically acclaimed as natural successors to The Beatles. In fact some referred to the band as and i quote ‘the new Fab Four. and they were handpicked by the members of the Beatles themselves.’ Their songs and albums made millions, But a series of financial and legal complications would lead to the deaths of its two main songwriters, and a bittersweet legacy going forward. This is their story.
Badfinger’s roots go back to the early 60s, in the close-knit music scene of Swansea (swanzee) Wales, a port city almost like a little liverpool.. While initially performing on the local circuit using temporary names, their first serious incarnation was as the Iveys, which came together in 1961. Their early lineup consisted of frontman Pete Ham on lead guitar, Dai Jenkins on rhythm guitar, Ron Griffiths on bass and Roy Anderson on drums.The Iveys sets heavily covered black american music.
By 1965 drummer Roy Anderson’s work life took hold. He was replaced by Mike Gibbins, who was introduced to the band through Griffiths. In an interview with Gary Katz for the documentary Badfinger: The Director’s Cut, Gibbins recalled feeling uncertain about this transition, but eventually accepted his role.
“It was really strange, because these guys were like mods. They had criss-cross-patterned trousers and short hair like the Faces, [but] they were playing good stuff,” he’d say.
“Pete [Ham] didn’t like my playing. He thought it was pretty abysmal, and that my bass drum sounded flipped out. I went for a pint at the bar around the corner and thought that was that, but to my amazement, he came over and said, ‘We want you in the band.’
The Iveys soon became one of Swansea’s top local band and shared billing with another emerging act, The Mojos. Bill Collins, a session musician, was impressed with the Iveys’ performance, and took them under his wing. While not a manager per-se, he did have industry connections, and got them a job as the backing band for David Garrick. Their shows were so popular that the band members commanded more attention than Garrick himself, particularly Dai Jenkins, with Gibbins recalling in a separate interview,
“We’d be doing a gig in Ireland, and he’d be singing Mrs. Applebee, and the girls would be screaming, screaming, screaming, but then he’d go, ‘Hang on a minute,’ look to the other side and…there would be crowds around Dai.” “I think that’s the reason we got fired."
Collins moved with The Iveys to London, England, where they’d set up base at his communal house in Golders Green. The band was being paid 5 pounds a week as a retainer, not a whole ot. He encouraged the band to focus on songwriting and frontman Pete Ham would take that to heart, demoing tons of original songs using the house’s makeshift studio. Meanwhile the band’s continued live repertoire of R&B, Motown, and Beatles hits began drawing a lot of attention from record labels. Collins was insistent on signing with the fledgling Apple Records, which was owned by the Beatles themselves. The label was known for being the most artist friendly label at the time.
In 1967, guitarist Dai Jenkins was dismissed from the band after his commitment waned, and was replaced by 24 year old Tom Evans, a native of Liverpool, England who would become another piece of the signature lineup. As explained in Dan Matovina’s book, Without You: The Tragic History of Badfinger, The Iveys were in instant awe of Evans’ musicianship, but his personality took a bit of getting used to, with Gibbins remembering:
“As soon as Tom moved in, he was complaining. He was from Liverpool and we were from Wales. He said that he couldn’t relate to anybody. My feeling was, ‘Just tag along, man. This is a band.”
Local musician Will Youatt telling Loudersound “They played all the local haunts,” “They were a good-looking sort of band, but no great shouts musically. Then they got rid of Dai and Ronnie and replaced ’em with the Liverpool boys – then they became songwriters.”
By the next year, The Iveys prepared demos for Apple Records, a