If there ever was a band that seemed to be unfairly cursed, it would have to be Badfinger. They were a band of enormous talent and potential, only to be doomed with poor management deals and pointless side-issues that distracted the members from making some of the best power pop music known to man.They signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, they were provided with their first hit single courtesy of Paul McCartney, they shared the stage for The Concert For Bangla Desh, and they seemed poised to become the legitimate heirs to the The Beatles.
It all came crashing down on April 24, 1975 when Badfinger leader Pete Ham hung himself in the garage of his London home.
Tom Evans, Ham’s bandmate was born 60 years ago today. He helped Pete co-write one of the band’s most well known tracks, “Without You” (later covered by Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey) and was tapped by McCartney himself to sing lead on “Come And Get It.”
After Ham’s suicide, Tom Evans and Joey Molland decided to restart Badfinger as a duo.
My Dad, knowing that I liked Badfinger, got me one of these “comeback” album for Christmas one year. Airwaves sounded nothing like the Badfinger of old and the band was quickly dropped by Elektra records.
Strangely, the band signed to another label and attempted one more follow up in 1981. After it became clear that the band wouldn’t regain the heights of the early 70’s, Tom Evans split with Joey Molland and the two started separate versions of Badfinger.
The two never were able to regain their friendship; Molland argued with Evans concerning the royalties of “Without You” (a song that Molland had little creative input on) and it prompted the already financially strapped Evans to go in his own backyard and hang himself from a tree.
Molland continued on using the Badfinger name and toured around the Midwest during the summer to take advantage of the fair and festival circuit. They (or he, in this case) played around the Southeast Iowa area a few times to little attendance; it seemed that Molland was a little tipsy and trying to take advantage of the name during a time when Ryko was releasing a live Badfinger album.
The death of Tom Evans is an eerie event. Both he and Ham were caught in the middle of financial disputes and both used hanging as methods on which they left the planet. I don’t remember the slightest mention of Evans’ death in 1983 but I remember specifically thinking how crazy it was once I did read about that half….HALF of the band Badfinger killed themselves via hanging.
How crazy is that?
And how crazy is it that they’re not revered today as much as they should be. After all, any band that had access to The Beatles’ inner circle couldn’t be all that bad.
