John Lennon wanted to call the band "Glass Onion", but no one liked the name. (Lennon later used the name for one of his songs on the White Album). Instead, The Iveys chose another Beatles-inspired moniker: "Badfinger." This was a reference to "Badfinger Boogie", an early working title of "With a Little Help from My Friends," from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
There are few bands in the annals of rock music as star-crossed in their history as Badfinger. Pegged as one of the most promising British groups of the late '60s and the one world-class talent ever signed to the Beatles' Apple Records label that remained with the label, Badfinger enjoyed the kind of success in England and America that most other bands could only envy. Yet a string of memorable hit singles -- "Come and Get It," "No Matter What," "Day After Day," and "Baby Blue" -- saw almost no reward from that success. Instead, four years of hit singles and international tours precipitated the suicides of its two creative members and legal proceedings that left lawyers as the only ones enriched by the group's work.
Pete Ham (April 27, 1947 -- April 23, 1975) was born in one of the rougher areas of the port city of Swansea, Wales, the third of three children. A very active, adventurous, and moody youth, his biggest passion in life as a boy was music -- his father was a fan of big band music and his older brother played the trumpet. Ham began playing the mouth organ at age four and then turned to the guitar, at which he became extremely proficient, in the '50s. He got his first guitar in 1959, and in the early '60s formed a trio, called the Panthers, with two friends, playing the music of the Shadows, Cliff Richard's backing band. The group later became a quintet and began using other names, including the Black Velvets and the Wild Ones. Members came and went around Ham, and one of the new additions in the early '60s was bassist Ron Griffiths (born October 2, 1946), whose earliest musical inspirations included the Shadows and the Ventures. The group, with Ham, Griffiths, and guitarist Dai Jenkins at its core, eventually settled on the Iveys, after a street in Swansea, and also as a tribute to the Hollies, not to mention their appreciation of the American song "Poison Ivy."
By 1966, they had a new manager in Bill Collins and were based in London, where they continued to make a name for themselves, both as a regular backing band for vocalist David Garrick and in their own gigs. It was Collins who encouraged the members of the Iveys to write their own songs -- Ham proved the most proficient of the quartet at this, with Griffiths a distant second. By 1967, various record companies and producers, including Decca, Pye, and CBS, expressed an interest in signing them.
That same year, Jenkins left the band and was replaced by Liverpool-born Tom Evans (June 5, 1947 -- November 19, 1983). Evans had been playing with a band called Them Calderstones, an R&B-based band whose main influence was Motown. The group was now one of the top outfits to come out of Wales, equally good at loud rock & roll and lyrical pop numbers, harmonizing Hollies style or rocking out '50s style, and the members were writing an ever-growing body of originals. This was the group that auditioned for the newly formed Apple Records label in 1968. First Mal Evans, the Beatles' longtime roadie -- and a friend of the Iveys' manager -- took up their cause, followed by Peter Asher, the head of A&R for the label. Finally, they attracted the attention of Paul McCartney.
Moreover, the connection with Harrison did nothing to relieve them of the Beatles connection. Furthermore, even at that point, there were problems developing collecting the money they were making -- Apple was in a state of chaos, with Badfinger and the individual Beatles the only artists who were making any money for the company. Additionally, their new manager, Polley, was making all kinds of moves involving their finances, supposedly looking after their interests, but effectively keeping their money from them. And they were still playing a brutal schedule of tours and recording sessions.
On April 23, 1975, a year into these financial and professional crises, Ham -- critically short of money, with no prospect of seeing any that was owed to him, and with a daughter on the way -- hung himself in his garage. The group's affairs, already a shambles, had turned into a nightmare. The surviving group members tried to put their personal and professional lives back together over the next few years while the overlapping suits and counter suits wound their way through the system on both sides of the Atlantic.
The story of British power pop group Badfinger reads like an installment of VH1's "Behind the Music." Smash hits, superstar collaborations, financial ruin and suicide pepper the band's history.
Badfinger grew out of a Welsh act called The Iveys that featured the dynamic Pete Ham on guitar and vocals. The Iveys had built their reputation opening for acts like The Who, The Yardbirds and The Moody Blues during the mid-1960s. Soon, they caught the ear of Paul McCartney and were signed to The Beatles' Apple Records label. McCartney gave the band their first big hit, "Come and Get It," as well as their new name, taken from the working title of "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends," previously known as "Bad Finger Boogie."
It was after "Come and Get It" was recorded that the lineup began to shift, making room for Molland on guitar. Molland, a Liverpool native, had distinguished himself in a number of other acts, including a stint with Gary Walker. "Joey being from Liverpool and being just a few years younger than The Beatles, he hung out in the same clubs, listened to the same bands and bought the same records that they did," said Michael Cimino, author of "Badfinger and Beyond: The Authorized Biography of Joey Molland." "The influences that inspired all of them to be musicians are on a parallel and therefore the sound and style are similar in essence."
While "Come and Get It" charted well, the band seemed somewhat oblivious to its success. "When 'Come and Get It' was a big hit for the band, it was like we were the last ones to know," Molland said from his Minneapolis home. "It didn't really change our lives. We still rode around in a van, we got about 30 quid [$75] a week and most everything stayed the same. We were just happy to be in a rock band."
The band, in particular Ham, Molland and bassist Tom Evans, would also contribute to numerous Beatles side projects including George Harrison's epic "All Things Must Pass," John Lennon's "Imagine" and Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh." The band also continued to create hits of its own such as "No Matter What," "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue."
But while the band toured and recorded seemingly nonstop, nefarious elements in their camp were taking advantage of the group's naivete. "It all went wrong," Molland said. "The money went missing and so forth. On the band's side, we were just tripping along, making records, writing songs and touring. Our management was so inept but we just did what we were supposed to do."
Soon the band began to experience a revolving door of sorts with Ham exiting the group, Molland taking leave and Ham returning. But tragedy would strike. "Pete was broke, his wife was going in to the hospital to have a baby and everything was falling on top of him," Molland said. "I think he may have felt a bit responsible for what happened with the band, I don't really know, but he walked out in his garage in April 1975 and hung himself."
Evans and Molland attempted to resurrect Badfinger in '78 with the record "Airwaves," and the duo and drummer Mike Gibbins again collaborated on "Say No More" in 1981. But in 1983, Evans committed suicide, hanging himself as well.
Evans' death wasn't the only reason Badfinger's comeback stalled. "The sound of popular music started to really change and we fell through the cracks," Molland said. "Producers were looking at music a bit differently, the kids were looking at it differently and we sort of graduated to a classic rock act."
These days, Molland continues to make music and, with four solo CDs under his belt, he's also working on putting together an organization in Minneapolis to help younger artists learn the ins and outs of the business.
"I've tried to take what I learned from my experience, and I'm starting my own music company here in Minneapolis that's a little bit more community-minded, a little more educational and a little less like a concentration camp," Molland said. "It would be great if you're a young artist with dreams of making it big to have the perspective of someone who's been there and learned lessons like I have."
Badfinger's music remains as vital a part of the rock 'n' roll canon as ever and Molland's efforts to keep the band's legacy alive prove determination and faith often win out in the end. "Badfinger's story is very tragic but Joey Molland's story is very heroic because he's a survivor," Cimino said. "I think going through the turmoil of losing two bandmates to suicide made Joey even more determined to survive. It's those experiences that make you say to yourself, 'This is not going to happen to me,' and I think that has provided him with lots of motivation and inspiration to continue."