Badfinger were a British rock band that originally consisted of Pete Ham, Mike Gibbins, Tom Evans and Joey Molland. The band evolved from an earlier group called The Iveys that was formed in 1961 by Ham, Ron Griffiths and David Dai Jenkins in Swansea, Wales. They were signed by the Beatles Apple label in 1968 as The Iveys. In 1969, Griffiths left and was replaced by Molland, and the band renamed itself Badfinger. Badfinger had four consecutive worldwide hits from 1970 to 1972: Come and Get It (written and produced by Paul McCartney), No Matter What, Day After Day, and Baby Blue. In 2013, Baby Blue made a resurgence onto the Hot Rock Songs Billboard 100 chart at No. 14, due to its featuring at the end of the series finale of the hit TV show, Breaking Bad. Their song Without You has been covered many times, including a Billboard number one hit for Harry Nilsson. In 1970, the band engaged American businessman Stan Polley to manage their commercial affairs. Over the next five years the band recorded several albums for Apple and toured extensively, but became embroiled in the chaos of Apple Records dissolution. They signed to Warner Bros., but Polleys financial machinations resulted in a lawsuit by Warner over missing escrow account money. Warners consequent withdrawal from market of the 1974 album, Wish You Were Here (seven weeks after its release), cut off the bands income. Three days before his 28th birthday, on 24 April 1975, Ham committed suicide by hanging himself, leaving a note that included damning comments about Polley. Over the next three years, surviving members struggled to rebuild their personal and professional lives against a backdrop of lawsuits. The albums Airwaves (1978) and Say No More (1981) floundered, as Molland and Evans see-sawed between co-operation and struggle in attempts to revive and capitalise on the Badfinger legacy. Having seen Hams body after Hams wife had called him, Evans reportedly never got over his friends suicide, and was quoted as saying in darker moments, I wanna be where he is. On 19 November 1983, Evans also took his own life by hanging.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:59:07 +0000
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