Muteswan
Roger Freestone
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2020
- Messages
- 7,359
- Reaction score
- 278
I came upon this earlier.
The Story Of Tom Evans. A Rock And Roll Tragedy That Should've Been A Fairytale :
The early morning hours of November 18, 1983. You're a Liverpool musician by the name of Tom Evans. A songwriter, vocalist, and bass player for the band Badfinger.
You're upset and very depressed and looking back on your life. You ask yourself "How did it come to this ?”
Over a decade earlier you were making records on the Beatles’ Apple label . You were hanging out and even playing on solo albums from John Lennon and George Harrison. Paul McCartney himself even wrote you a song that you specifically got to sing called “Come And Get It”. Your albums were a huge success, your songs were being played on the radio.
The members of the biggest band in the world The Beatles themselves are helping produce and even playing on your records. A song you write with your bandmate Pete called “Without You” is a number 1 smash hit for another artist named Harry Nilsson. You seem to be living a Fairytale.
Your plan is simple. Hire someone to take care of your money. You know that this can't last forever. You live a simple lifestyle while the money accumulates. Problem is you start to hear rumblings that your money isn't being handled the right way. You have trust and faith though in the man handling the finances.
Over time though you realize something is wrong. Your record company tells you money is missing from an escrow account
and they pull your new album “Wish You Were Here” off the shelves. It's a great new album, but now nobody can buy or hear it.
Your bandmate Pete Ham demands his money. He has just found out he has a baby on the way and has bought a small house. He finds out all of his money is gone. He becomes so distraught that he commits suicide by hanging himself in his home basement in 1975.
You are left to go on without your best friend. You're broke after all of that success and work. You leave the music business for awhile but return a few years later. Once again though the black cloud hovers over you. You're taken advantage of by a greedy promoter. You sign contracts that basically give the promoter complete control over your career.
Once you realize this you sever all ties, but the promoter plans to sue you for millions of dollars. You're also fighting with ex bandmates over royalties and ownership of The Badfinger name. You're broke, you're scared, you're depressed.
You start to think of your bandmate and best friend Pete who had been gone now over eight years. You have never gotten over the loss of your musical brother. You tell your wife, "I wanna go where Pete is. It's a better place than this."She doesn't realize what you're truly saying though. You decide that you wanna take your own life the same way Pete did eight years earlier.
You feel if you do it the same way he did you will go to the same place as him. You follow through with it. And just like that you're gone. And just like that the music world loses another incredible talent. Two members of the same band decide to hang themselves. All because of the greed of the music business. What a tragedy.
The above story about the tragic suicide of Tom Evans from the band Badfinger is one of the most disturbing examples of how brutal the music business can be if you don’t have the right people in place to handle your affairs.
A huge shout out to Tommy’s former Badfinger bandmates Bob Jackson and Mike Gibbins who did all they could to help him resurrect his career in his last days.
Unfortunately by the time Bob, and Mike had arrived to contribute Tommy had signed bad contracts which guaranteed them to fail.
Such a tragic and heartbreaking end to such a talented musician.
Essential Albums :
With Badfinger :
Magic Christian Music (1970)
No Dice (1970)
Straight Up (1971)
Ass (1973)
Badfinger (Warner Brothers Self Titled) (1974)
Wish You Were Here (1974)
Head First (Recorded 1975, released in 2000)
Airwaves (1979)
Say No More (1981)
With The Iveys :
Maybe Tomorrow (1969)
With The Dodgers :
Lost At Ebbetts Field (Bootleg)
The Story Of Tom Evans. A Rock And Roll Tragedy That Should've Been A Fairytale :
The early morning hours of November 18, 1983. You're a Liverpool musician by the name of Tom Evans. A songwriter, vocalist, and bass player for the band Badfinger.
You're upset and very depressed and looking back on your life. You ask yourself "How did it come to this ?”
Over a decade earlier you were making records on the Beatles’ Apple label . You were hanging out and even playing on solo albums from John Lennon and George Harrison. Paul McCartney himself even wrote you a song that you specifically got to sing called “Come And Get It”. Your albums were a huge success, your songs were being played on the radio.
The members of the biggest band in the world The Beatles themselves are helping produce and even playing on your records. A song you write with your bandmate Pete called “Without You” is a number 1 smash hit for another artist named Harry Nilsson. You seem to be living a Fairytale.
Your plan is simple. Hire someone to take care of your money. You know that this can't last forever. You live a simple lifestyle while the money accumulates. Problem is you start to hear rumblings that your money isn't being handled the right way. You have trust and faith though in the man handling the finances.
Over time though you realize something is wrong. Your record company tells you money is missing from an escrow account
and they pull your new album “Wish You Were Here” off the shelves. It's a great new album, but now nobody can buy or hear it.
Your bandmate Pete Ham demands his money. He has just found out he has a baby on the way and has bought a small house. He finds out all of his money is gone. He becomes so distraught that he commits suicide by hanging himself in his home basement in 1975.
You are left to go on without your best friend. You're broke after all of that success and work. You leave the music business for awhile but return a few years later. Once again though the black cloud hovers over you. You're taken advantage of by a greedy promoter. You sign contracts that basically give the promoter complete control over your career.
Once you realize this you sever all ties, but the promoter plans to sue you for millions of dollars. You're also fighting with ex bandmates over royalties and ownership of The Badfinger name. You're broke, you're scared, you're depressed.
You start to think of your bandmate and best friend Pete who had been gone now over eight years. You have never gotten over the loss of your musical brother. You tell your wife, "I wanna go where Pete is. It's a better place than this."She doesn't realize what you're truly saying though. You decide that you wanna take your own life the same way Pete did eight years earlier.
You feel if you do it the same way he did you will go to the same place as him. You follow through with it. And just like that you're gone. And just like that the music world loses another incredible talent. Two members of the same band decide to hang themselves. All because of the greed of the music business. What a tragedy.
The above story about the tragic suicide of Tom Evans from the band Badfinger is one of the most disturbing examples of how brutal the music business can be if you don’t have the right people in place to handle your affairs.
A huge shout out to Tommy’s former Badfinger bandmates Bob Jackson and Mike Gibbins who did all they could to help him resurrect his career in his last days.
Unfortunately by the time Bob, and Mike had arrived to contribute Tommy had signed bad contracts which guaranteed them to fail.
Such a tragic and heartbreaking end to such a talented musician.
Essential Albums :
With Badfinger :
Magic Christian Music (1970)
No Dice (1970)
Straight Up (1971)
Ass (1973)
Badfinger (Warner Brothers Self Titled) (1974)
Wish You Were Here (1974)
Head First (Recorded 1975, released in 2000)
Airwaves (1979)
Say No More (1981)
With The Iveys :
Maybe Tomorrow (1969)
With The Dodgers :
Lost At Ebbetts Field (Bootleg)
