Badfinger

Bucket

My love of Jellyfish led me to this much older band, since Jellyfish covered their brilliant track "No Matter What". Been listening to Badfinger a lot ever since, and their 1971 album Straight Up has become one of my favourites.

Some of you might know them already, but they seem pretty overlooked and underappreciated so I thought I'd better talk about them quickly in case anyone doesn't know. They were signed to Apple Records and worked reasonably closely with the former Beatles. They had some hits and were doing pretty well, but their manager was a crooked bastard who effectively took all of their money and ruined their careers. This led singer/guitarist Pete Ham to commit suicide in 1975 (he's a member of the 27 club), then bassist Tom Evans also killed himself in 1983.

They wrote the big ballad "Without You", popularised by Harry Nilsson and then Mariah Carey, and their track "Baby Blue" was recently used in the closing scene of the final episode of Breaking Bad. They also had a lot of other great songs. They did have some Beatles influence, given the connections, but also had their harder rock leanings. I suppose "power pop" is the best phrase for it.

It's such a shame their career as a band ended that way, because they were really good. Great songwriters and really talented musicians - my favourite being Pete Ham, who had a great voice and was no slouch on the old geetar (and is a big part of why I've developed such a liking for SGs recently). He also wrote many of their best songs.

This one was written by the other guitarist/singer, Joey Molland, and has a cracking melodic solo from Pete at 1:20:

Probably their best song IMO - a truly great pop song. This time with Pete singing lead and Joey doing the solo.

Another of Joey's songs (I think) with another brilliant solo from Pete at 1:30-ish:

This is one of Pete's, and was a big hit for them. And there's the small matter of George freaking Harrison playing slide guitar on it. Same footage as No Matter What... they probably couldn't afford to film more due to Stan Polley, the bastard...

They did all have pretty rubbish hair though.

Anyway, great band. 

Bucket

If you've got half an hour this tells the story really well, but fuck me it's so depressing.

It staggers me that Stan Polley was able to sleep at night. What an appalling man.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Fantastic band.

Suffered a lot at the hands of some critics, as they were so closely associated with The Beatles (their first big hit was written by Macca). Their writing could a bit Beatlesy... and their voices were often compared with the Beatles (in the music press) - and I think that led people to think they were copyists to some degree.  However, they certainly weren't copyists... they wrote some great songs... and had a great reputation as a live band (more rocky than their studio work).

(The Beatles association was quite deep... I think they were effectively the backing band on Ringo Starr's solo hits... and they were the core of the backing band for George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh... get the DVD and you'll see Pete on stage)

 

I grew up in Pete Ham's home town... where his brother had the best music shop for miles around.  As a kid, I used to hang around there every Saturday morning - looking at the Fenders and Gibsons that I had no hope of owning. Very sad when old amps and cabs with Badfinger stencilled on them were being sold off after Pete's suicide (I guess the money was needed to pay off a few things).

Ironic that many years later, Pete's SG set a record at auction (which I guess was more to do with it's original owner... who gave it to Pete!!).

 

If you're interested in learning more about how it all started and ended, there's a book by Dan Matovina (I'm sure Amazon will have it). 

 

Eventually, the future royalties from songs like 'Without You' were split 5 ways (with Pete's daughter - that I don't think he lived long enough to meet - getting some well-deserved revenue... at long last).  Interestingly, one of the five to earn royalites in the new deal was Lewis Collins's (the actor from the 70s hit TV series The Professionals) dad, Bill Collins (who played a major role in managing the band, giving them somewhere to live, buying them recording kit and encouraging them to develop their writing skills).

 

There's a CD of demos... that is heartbreaking to listen to... you can hear the last few of Pete's demos... and they sound really sad... even the guitar tone sounds thin and helpless.

Bucket

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Fantastic band.

Suffered a lot at the hands of some critics, as they were so closely associated with The Beatles (their first big hit was written by Macca). Their writing could a bit Beatlesy... and their voices were often compared with the Beatles (in the music press)

I can see that - Pete's voice was a bit McCartney-ish (probably better tbh) and Joey had more of a John Lennon kind of voice.

This is another of Joey's songs - VERY Beatles-y. Great though. He's also a killer songwriter (and the only surviving member of the classic line-up - poor guy, having had to deal with all of that shit in his life).

I'll look out for that book.

Kebabkid

Their story always saddens me and you're right @Bucket. I don't think people realised what a great pop band they were and personally, I preferred them to The Beatles. Of course, they were an influence on the wonderful Jellyfish and there's a double B Side (yep, vinyl) of them playing "No matter what" and Wings' "Someone's knocking at the door"

robinbowes

Trivia: I bought a Traynor YGL-3 from Bob Jackson who was recruited when Pete Ham resigned, and kept on when he came back.

This is the same model:

Mmm, might take that to rehearsal tonight for a change...

R.

Kebabkid

@robinbowes - are you from the Midlands? My mate from Coventry, Anthony Harty (currently in Selector) sometimes plays with Bob Jackson and I was just curious if you were from that way?

robinbowes

@Kebabkid - no, I'm from God's Own County (North Yorkshire)

R.

Kebabkid

Aha - thanks and a lovely part of the world @robinbowes

StageStruck

A great band. No Matter What is one of my all time favourite songs. They deserved to be so much bigger, but they were saddled with being the "new Beatles" according to some of the press at the time.  It seems there is also major friction between the three departed members families and Joey Molland who has released several cash-in releases under the Badfinger name.