Badfinger Power Rock Band of the 70's

Badfinger originates in 1962 in Swansea South Wales as the Panthers, later changed to the Iveys. The original group consists of Pete Ham (lead guitar/keyboards), Ron Griffiths (bass guitar), Roy Anderson drums, and David 'Dai' Jenkins (guitar). Mike Gibbins is later added as drummer. By 1965 they had moved to London, established a national reputation and begun to play back-up in the U.K.for prominent groups such as The Moody Blues, Spencer Davis, and The Who.

The Iveys began a very successful period on the London show circuit, performing a variety of various covers, from Motown to psychedelic. During this period ,they caught the attention of an Apple records executive and became the first group signed to the new Apple Record Label. They were endorsed by each of the four Beatles prior to their being signed to the label.

The Iveys released their first singles in 1968 and 1969, with only limited success. Apple failed to aggresively promote the singles and their follow-up album in the U.S. and U.K for some unknown and obscure reasons.

Paul McCartney then assisted them, by producing several songs for them to record, for his movie the "Magic Christian." The major song hit was "Come and Get It."

Group member Griffiths left the group shortly after these sessions, due to marital problems resulting from being in a communal living situation with the other band members (he was the only married member of the group).

In October 1969 the group changed its name to Badfinger, as the name the Iveys was considered too trite and inappropriate for the times. The name Badfinger was suggested by someone at Apple Records and was based on John Lennon's "Badfinger Boogie" an early working title of "With a Little Help from My Friends."

Just prior to the release of "Come and Get it" in 1969, Liverpudlian lead guitarist, Joey Molland, was hired to replace Griffiths and was required to switch from lead to bass.

"Come and Get It" was released in December 1969 in the U.K. and January 1970 in the U.S. It reached the Top 10 throughout the world, including #3 in the U.S. Billboard charts. The track was also featured in the film "The Magic Christian."

In 1970, other hit songs were released including "No Matter What." Nilsson also did a cover of one of their songs "Without You" that also became an international top 10 hit. Things were definitely looking up.

While in the U.S. in 1970, their manager Bill Collins was introduced to New York businessman Stan Polley which eventually resulted in a business management contract with Polley. Polley had a very dubious financial reputation and this contract would ultimately prove the downfall of the group.

In late 1970 Badfinger made a successful 3 month tour of the U.S., but were somewhat unhappy about the almost constant comparisons with the Beatles, a shadow that would continue to haunt them. They also continued to work as studio musicians with Apple records and were featured back-ups for George Harrison at his Concert for Bangladesh.

Two hit singles were released by Badfinger in 1971, "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue." In spite of Badfinger's successes, things were not going well for Apple Records and the group was notified that future contracts would not be as generous. Around the same time, their U.S. business manager, Stan Polley was being accused of financial misdealings in the U.S. press, based on his misdealings with other stars under contract - a fact that seemed to elude Badfinger and it's local manager Bill Collins.

After considerable legal fighting between Apple Records and Stan Polley, a final album was finally released by Apple, entitled, "Ass," and was not successful, failing to reach the Billboard Top 100. During the production of this album, Stan Polley negotiated a big contract with Warner Brothers, calling for the band to produce an album every six months over a three year period. The group, enticed by Stan Polley and the lure of big money signed the contract, over some well founded suspicions.

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About 6 weeks after completing their "Ass" Album for Apple, the group went to work at Warner Brothers on their first WB ALbum entitled Badfinger.Both the "Ass" album and the "Badfinger" Album were released at about the same time in the U.S. and the U.K. and neither album, or their respective singles did well.

The band was able to maintain their U.S. fan base by going out on a series of successful concert tours. One of these concerts, at the Cleveland Agora, on March 4, 1974 was recorded on 16-track tape for a possible live album release, but was later deemed unacceptable.

Following these American tours, 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 extremely well-received by Rolling Stone and the media upon its release in October 1974.

Internal issues within the group became serious however, when Molland's wife Kathie started to take an active part in band management, leading to Ham's temporary departure from the group. He was temporarily replaced, but then returned again and the band became a quintet.

Over the previous year, Warner Brothers' publishing arm had become increasingly troubled by a lack of communication from Stan Polley regarding the status of an escrow account of advance funds. Per their contract, Polley was to put in safe-keeping $100,000 in a mutually-accessible account that both Warner Publishing and the group could potentially access. But Polley had not revealed the account's whereabouts to Warners Publishing, and he reportedly ignored warnings about this. Unbeknownst to the band, threats of litigation had been going on behind the scenes.

With Molland gone and an increasingly unstable situation overall, Polley's next ploy was to press the band to go back into Apple Recording Studios to record its third album under the Warner contract, instead of a U.S. support tour. Within two weeks, tracks were cut for an album entitled "Head First" and rough mixes were distributed to the musicians and Warner Brothers Records in America. Before the album was formally accepted by Warners Records, Warners Publishing had already filed a lawsuit against Stan Polley and Badfinger on December 10, 1974 in L.A. Superior Court. Polley had hoped submitting the Head First tapes would secure at least one more album advance prior to the litigation, but Warner Brothers refused to accept the tapes and never paid for the sessions. The legal action led to Warners Records stopping the promotion of "Wish You Were Here" and they stopped distribution of "Wish You Were Here" worldwide, thus completely halting Badfinger's career.

Badfinger spent the early months of 1975 trying to figure out how to proceed with the unclear legal situation at hand, including the one withdrawn album and the one rejected album. Years earlier, Polley had established Badfinger Enterprises, Inc., which signed the members to various contracts that dictated that receipts of touring, recording, publishing and even songwriter 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. But by April 1975, salaries were no longer arriving and panic set in, especially for Pete Ham, who had recently acquired a house and whose girlfriend was expecting a child that May.

According to their newest member, Bob Jackson, booking agents and prospective managers routinely turned the band away because of their restrictive contracts with Polley and impending legal actions. Ham tried many times to contact Polley by telephone during the early months of 1975, and was never able to reach him.

On 24 April 1975, Ham hanged himself in his garage studio in Surrey. His suicide note, addressed to his girlfriend and her son, seemed to blame Polley for much of his internal despair and he cited his lost ability to cope with his disappointments in life. The note read: "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 had shown a growing mental illness over the past months as he burned cigarettes out on his hands and arms. Ham's daughter Petera was born a month after his death.

After Ham's death, Badfinger dissolved. Late in 1975, Evans and Jackson helped establish a group called The Dodgers. The group released three U.K. 45's on Island Records in 1976. "Don't Let Me Be Wrong" was the only U.S. release, but it failed to chart. Subsequently, the management of the band fired Evans for insubordination and ordered all his performances deleted from the group's album recordings that later was released as Love On The Rebound. Molland had started a band in 1975 with Mark Clarke (Colosseum) and Jerry Shirley (Humble Pie) called Natural Gas. The group performed a few gigs as an opening act for Peter Frampton in 1976. They released a self-titled album and three singles, but none managed to chart. Gibbins performed session drumming for various Welsh acts, including Bonnie Tyler on her 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 briefly worked insulating pipes. That year, U.S. based drummer Kenny Harck and guitarist Joe Tansin recruited Molland to start a new band. When they needed a bass player, Molland suggested Evans, who joined after a visit to California in 1978. Suggestions from record companies led to the decision to rename the new band as Badfinger, and the "comeback" album Airwaves was released in 1979. Harck was fired from the band during the sessions and Tansin left the band immediately after the album was completed.

To tour promoting the album, Molland and Evans recruited Tony Kaye (Yes) on keyboards and Peter Clarke (Stealers Wheel) on drums. The single "Love is Gonna Come At Last" from Airwaves reached #69 on the Billboard charts. The new Badfinger then recorded and released a second album, Say No More in 1981, with Glenn Sherba added on second guitar and Richard Bryans (Aviary) replacing Clarke on drums. This LP was distributed by Atlantic on the Radio label. The initial single, "Hold On," reached #56 on the Billboard charts. Ultimately, Evans and Molland split acrimoniously in 1981.

During 1982 and 1983, Molland and Evans then operated what turned out to be rival touring bands, both using the name Badfinger, which caused serious conflict in their relationship. At certain stages, Evans teamed with pre-1975 Badfinger members Bob Jackson, Mike Gibbins, guitarist Adam Allen, guitarist Reed Kailing (The Grass Roots), guitarist Donnie Dacus (Chicago), post-1975 Badfinger members Tony Kaye, guitarist Glenn Sherba and drummer Lenny Campanaro. For a few of his Badfinger band gigs, Molland teamed with post-1975 member Joe Tansin.

In 1982, Evans and Jackson signed a management contract with a Milwaukee businessman John Cass which led to a disastrous tour. Both were later sued (Evans for U.S. $5 million) when they abandoned any responsibilities of the contract, due to their stance that management obligations had not been performed. Early in 1983, Evans and Jackson completed four demos in Minneapolis, Minnesota under contractual obligations to former Stevie Wonder manager Don Powell. These were briefly shopped but failed to generate strong interest.

On November 19, 1983, Evans and Molland had an extensive heated argument on the telephone regarding past Badfinger income still in escrow from the Apple era and the "Without You" songwriting royalties Evans was now receiving, which Molland, former manager Bill Collins, and Gibbins all wanted a share in. Following this argument, Evans hanged himself in the garden at his home.

In 1984, Molland, Gibbins and Jackson reunited as Badfinger playing a months worth of U.S. dates as part of a package tour 20th Anniversary of British Invasion acts.

In 1986, Molland and Gibbins reformed a touring band called Badfinger playing very sporadic dates, until Gibbins left for good in 1990.

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Membership of The Iveys/Badfinger underwent numerous personnel changes and, at the end, none of the original members of The Iveys were still in Badfinger. Members of Badfinger prior to 1975 are in bold.

The Iveys
1965 - 1967 Pete Ham - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Ron Griffiths - vocals, bass
David "Dai" Jenkins - vocals, guitar
Mike Gibbins - vocals, drums, percussion

The Iveys
1967 - 1969
Badfinger
1969 Pete Ham - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Tom Evans - vocals, guitar, bass
Ron Griffiths - vocals, bass
Mike Gibbins - vocals, drums, percussion

Badfinger
1969 - 1974 Pete Ham - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Tom Evans - vocals, bass, guitar
Joey Molland - vocals, guitar, piano
Mike Gibbins - vocals, drums, percussion

Badfinger
Oct./Nov. 1974 Pete Ham - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Tom Evans - vocals, bass, guitar
Joey Molland - vocals, guitar, piano
Bob Jackson - vocals, keyboards
Mike Gibbins - vocals, drums, percussion

Badfinger
Nov. 1974 -
April 1975 Pete Ham - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Tom Evans - vocals, bass
Bob Jackson - vocals, keyboards, guitar
Mike Gibbins - vocals, drums, percussion

May 1975 -
June 1978 Disbanded

Badfinger
1978 - 1979 Tom Evans - vocals, bass, guitar
Joey Molland - vocals, guitar, piano
Joe Tansin - vocals, guitar
Kenny Harck - drums

Badfinger
1979 - 1980 Tom Evans - vocals, bass, guitar
Joey Molland - vocals, guitar, piano
Tony Kaye - keyboards
Peter Clarke - drums

Badfinger
1980 - 1982 Tom Evans - vocals, bass, guitar
Joey Molland - vocals, guitar, piano
Glen Sherba - guitar
Tony Kaye - keyboards
Richard Bryans - drums

Badfinger
1982 Tom Evans - vocals, bass
Bob Jackson - vocals, keyboards, guitar
Mike Gibbins - drums
Adam Allen - guitar

Badfinger
1982 Tom Evans - vocals, bass
Bob Jackson - vocals, keyboards, guitar
Mike Gibbins - drums
Reed Kailing - vocals, guitar
Donnie Dacus - guitar

Badfinger
1982 - 1983 Tom Evans - vocals, bass
Bob Jackson - vocals, keyboards, guitar
Al Wodtke - guitar
Greg Gehring - guitar
Dan Grenier - drums

Badfinger
1983 Tom Evans - vocals, bass
Bob Jackson - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Glen Sherba - guitar
Tony Kaye - keyboards
Lenny Campanero - drums

Information courtesy of Wikipedia

Original albums
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
1997 BBC In Concert 1972-1973
2000 Head First
2002 Live 83 - DBA-BFR

Compilations
Year of Release Title
1989 Shine On (UK only)
1990 The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2
1995 The Best Of Badfinger
2000 The Very Best Of Badfinger

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